November 6, 2018
by Gregg Robertson Leave a comment

VMware Cloud Foundation 3.5

This morning during the VMworld EU keynote the next iteration of VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) was announced and it is packed with new features as well as a number of exciting changes. I will touch on some of them from a high level below:

vSphere 6.7 Update 1 based Bill of Materials

VCF is now based on and compatible with the latest version of vSphere 6.7 update 1 as well as the latest version of the vRealize suite. The bill of materials and versions are:

vSphere 6.7 Update 1

vSAN 6.7 Update 1

vSAN Content Pack 2.0 (for log Insight)

NSX for vSphere 6.4.3

NSX-T 2.3 (WHAT!!!?? More below on this)

SDDC Manager 3.5 (Includes Integrated VIA)

vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager 2.0

vRealize Automation 7.5

vRealize Operations 7.0 (and management packs)

vRealize Log Insight 4.7 (and contents packs)

NSX-T Workload Domain

NSX-T Data Center is the premium networking and security platform, supporting developer cloud use cases such as:
Single or multi-tenant IaaS (Infrastructure as- Service) and with NSX-T 2.3 expanding support to New App Frameworks (Containers)
Public Cloud and some Security Use cases

NFS Workload Domain

Ability to create workload domains using only NFS storage
Benefits:

Automated deployment of NFS based workloads
Flexibility to consume existing storage

Composable Infrastructure Support

What is Composable Infrastructure?

Converged:

Preconfigured package of software and hardware in a single unit
Enables simplified procurement and easier operation
Designed for a specific application or workload
Management of those discrete resources often remains siloed

Hyperconverged:

Adds deeper levels of abstraction and greater levels of automation for easy-to consume infrastructure capacity
Software-defined elements are implemented virtually, with integration into the hypervisor environment.
Scaling is done by deploying additional nodes

Composable:

Fluid pools of compute, storage and network
Simplified platform management
Resources can be provisioned & reconfigured on demand
Reduce under-utilization and over-provisioning while creating a more agile data center

Brand new composability service developed against Redfish framework

HPE Synergy is the first certified partner.

Next Generation Use Cases for Cloud Foundation

Resources

Product Page vmware.com/go/cloudfoundation
Documentation vmware.com/go/cloudfoundation-docs
Poster (like the one shown below) vmware.com/go/cloudfoundation-poster
Blog blogs.vmware.com/cloud-foundation
HOL labs.hol.vmware.com/HOL/catalogs/lab/3787
Community vmware.com/go/cloudfoundation-community
FAQ vmware.com/go/cloudfoundation-faq
Twitter @VMWvCF
YouTube youtube.com/c/VMwareCloudFoundation

Attending VMworld?

If you want to learn more and you are attending VMworld EU then there a large number of sessions and Hands On Labs:

Wednesday Keynote HCI3728KE – Innovating Beyond HCI: How VMware is Driving the Next Data Center Revolution. Presented by Yanbing Li, John Gilmartin and Duncan Epping

Tuesday 6th November:

11:00 AM -12:00 PM	PRV1101BE	VxRack SDDC Technical Deep Dive
2:00PM – 3:00PM	PRV1766BE	Workload Automation in your VMware Cloud Foundation Based Private Cloud
2:00PM – 3:00 PM	PRV1933BER	VMware Cloud Foundation Architecture Deep Dive
3:30PM -4:30 PM	PRV2121BE	Composable Infrastructure Innovations: Cloud Foundation and HPE Synergy
5:00PM – 6:00PM	PRV1765BE	Advanced Operations for your VMware Cloud Foundation Based Private Cloud

Wednesday 7th November:

11:00 AM -12:00 PM	PRV1101BE	VxRack SDDC Technical Deep Dive
2:00PM – 3:00PM	PRV1766BE	Workload Automation in your VMware Cloud Foundation Based Private Cloud
2:00PM – 3:00 PM	PRV1933BER	VMware Cloud Foundation Architecture Deep Dive
3:30PM -4:30 PM	PRV2121BE	Composable Infrastructure Innovations: Cloud Foundation and HPE Synergy
5:00PM – 6:00PM	PRV1765BE	Advanced Operations for your VMware Cloud Foundation Based Private Cloud

Thursday 8th November:


9:00AM – 10:00AM	PRV1459BE	Strategies for Workload Mobility with VMware Cloud Foundation
10:30AM – 11:30AM	PRV1429BE	VMware Cloud Foundation Simplifies Disaster Protection
12:00PM – 1:00PM	PRV1463BE	Building the Ultimate Hybrid Cloud with VMware Cloud Foundation
3:00PM – 4:00PM	PRV1669BE	VMware Cloud Foundation Real-World Success with Professional Services
3:00PM – 4:00PM	PRV1933BER	VMware Cloud Foundation Architecture Deep Dive

Hands On Labs:

HOL-1946-01-SLN	Modernize Infrastructure – Getting Started with VMware Cloud Foundation 3.0
SPL-1944-01-SLN_E	Modernize Infrastructure – Getting started with VCF 3.0 (iSIM based)

Meet the Experts:

MONDAY, NOV 5
2:15 – 3:00 Table 5	PRV-5040	VMware SDDC architecture with expert Tom Harrington
3:15 – 4:00 Table 5	PRV-5036	Building a hybrid cloud with expert Heath Johnson
TUESDAY, NOV 6
1:15 – 2:00 Table 3	PRV-5037	NSX-T and PKS in VCF and VVD with expert Ryan Johnson
4:15 – 5:00 Table 5	PRV-5036	Building a hybrid cloud with expert Heath Johnson
4:15 – 5:00 Table 8	PRV-5039	VMware Cloud Foundation with expert Josh Townsend

WEDNESDAY, NOV 7
1:15 – 2:00 Table 3	PRV-5037	NSX-T and PKS in VCF and VVD with expert Ryan Johnson
5:15 – 6:00 Table 3	PRV-5040	VMware SDDC architecture with expert Tom Harrington
THURSDAY, NOV 8
9:15 – 10:00 Table 9	PRV-5037	NSX-T and PKS in VCF and VVD with expert Ryan Johnson
10:15 – 11:00 Table 8	PRV-5039	VMware Cloud Foundation with expert Josh Townsend

June 4, 2018
by Gregg Robertson 1 Comment

Why you should attend VMworld 2018

VMworld has something for everyone from those just learning about virtualisation to those who have been part of the industry for a number of years and are looking to those in depth sessions and discussions with the evangelists and guru’s of VMware plethora of offerings and solutions. If you haven’t yet booked your place then let me list some of the reasons I think you should attend as they are the reasons I try to attend every year:

On the Sunday of VMworld US the vBrownbag crew along with the VMUnderground crew are again running opening acts and then the VMUnderground party in the Evening (keep an eye out for tickets as these sell out very fast). The opening acts are always well attended and if you are a vExpert then it is a brilliant way to meet many others and if you are not then you can come and get motivated to submit by Ariel Sanchez. I blogged about my attending and being on a panel last year in my day 1 recap posting here (I’m the nerd in the blue VCDX shirt in the picture).

My next reason is about the community again but this time the ability to network with like minded individuals at the bloggers tables, fellow vExperts, fellow VCDX at the VCDX townhall on the Saturday before VMworld and all those I hope to meet over lunch and at the vBrownbag TechTalks who are working in collaboration with the VMTN team to run the infamous TechTalks. If you have never heard of the TechTalks then a brief overview is below:
- Tech Talks originated at VMworld 2012 where they provided an opportunity for community members, whose presentation submissions were not accepted into the main catalogue, to present the core of a topic. #TechTalks are a ten minute presentation by a community member for the benefit of the community. Since almost everyone working in technology has solved problems and learned something almost everyone could present a #TechTalk. The format can be a slide deck or simply talking, they are usually about how to solve a problem or get the most out of a product. The TechTalk is captured on video and published on the vBrownBag YouTube channel.
- If the conference Internet connection allows, the talk is also live streamed from the show.
- #TechTalks are for community members to reach other community members, any topic that will help other people is good. The one thing that TechTalks are not is an opportunity to present the corporate slide deck about a great product you would like us to buy. #TechTalks are about up skilling and education, the only marketing should be from the TechTalk sponsors who help make the whole thing happen.
Next are the breakout sessions, group discussions and expert panels. The content catalog is packed with amazing sessions by some of the biggest names in the industry and those up and coming in the industry. I’m personally really looking forward to all of the VMware Cloud on AWS sessions as it bridges my existing knowledge and interest in VMware with my exponentially growing interest in AWS. The sessions are also recorded so if you can’t make it to a sessions due to a conflict then by registering for VMworld you get access to all the recorded sessions after the conference for you to watch in your own time.
My next reason are the VMware Hands-On Labs which cover all VMware technologies and allow you to play with the latest releases and offerings not just from VMware but also VMware partners. Alike to the sessions the hands on labs are available after the conference but I would recommend going to a few that really interest you (again I’ve allocated some walk trough’s of the VMConAWS solution) and then you can do the remaining ones after the conference. If however you really want to hit the labs hard then I know they normally give a free pass to next years VMworld to the top few people who have completed the most labs.
The solution exchange is my next reason as this is the perfect opportunity to speak to those vendors who are offering the latest solution that might save your business and team loads of money and or time and this is the perfect opportunity to speak to that vendor who might be offering the solution that will fix the issues your company is experiencing and take that knowledge back to your company and impress your management with how you’ve found a great solution and to prove that your going to VMworld was worth it and that they should send you again next year. I would be remise if I didn’t encourage you to go speak to Dell EMC and hear about their amazing offerings all the way through the stack as well as pre-packaged and validated solutions for SMB’s all the way to large enterprises.
If you are looking to obtain that next VMware certification or want to speak to the certification team about the performance of your latest VCAP-Deploy exam then there are loads of VMware Certification opportunities. You can also book reduce cost exams at VMworld which I have personally never decided to do but loads of the community swear by it and due to the reduced cost it means if you unfortunately don’t make it then it isn’t that much of a dent to your pocket and lets you scope out the exam to better prepare for next time.
Last is the parties and due to the conferences being in Vegas and Barcelona you can imagine the amount of them there are and the amount of meet ups after the parties that happen. There are parties for everyone so if you are looking for a chilled drinks evening then there are loads of opportunities for that and if you want to party all night (save some sleep to be able to attend the conference) then there are plenty of those as well. If you haven;t got a ticket to VMUnderground on Sunday then the Welcome Reception kicks off the conference experience with food, drinks, and networking in the Solutions Exchange. There are normally loads of announcements about the parties closer to the time so keep an eye out on social media as the parties fill up fast and remember the strip is big so unless you plan to uber it then getting to three parties in a night might not be possible. The VMworld party finishes off the conference on Wednesday night.

If you are looking to attend then sign up here and make sure to come find me and say hi as well as I encourage you to attend the TechTalks which are due to be added to the content catalog very soon.

Gregg

August 31, 2017
by Gregg Robertson 1 Comment

VMworld Day 2 Recap

VMworld day 2 is always a good one for me personally as it’s the day you get the tech really spoken about and shown that has been announced at the show. If you missed my blog postings around some of the big announcements from day 1 then have a look below:

My day started with the keynote and again i watched it from the VMVillage in the bloggers area which I always enjoy as you can watch the keynote over the big screens but also sit with fellow vExpert bloggers. If you missed the keynote from either of the days then you can re-watch them here. One of the big announcements from the keynote was Pivotal Container Service, I was fortunate enough to be on a early access program where they went over the solution. It looks to be a really great solution and certainly has made me think I need to learn Kubernetes as I can see some amazing use cases for my customers.

After the keynote I went and watched a bit of a vBrownbag session. The vBrownbag of which I am one of the team have been doing TechTalks all week and record the sessions as well as stream it live. I will certainly be watching these after the conference as there has been some amazing content and now that the sessions are in the content catalog we have been getting solid crowds all week with some being three people deep standing and watching due to all the seats being gone.

Next I attended VMware Cloud on AWS: An Architectural and Operational Deep Dive [LHC3174BU]-the session was really interesting although i was slightly disappointed that the session was more a walk through of how to build your SDDC rather than anything around architecture design which i found disappointing seeing as this was meant to be a deep dive.Also he stated he was engineer so there’s no demo it’s all screenshots. I took some notes from the session

Covered what AWSonVMC offers.
What organisations are and how these map across all VMware Cloud Services.
Covered the real requirement of ensuring you choose the correct CIDR block as this cannot be changed
vCenter permissions and the lock down required to ensure there were essentially a VMware owned Admin and a customer owned admin.

Showed what the architecture is and what it uses from AWS to allow VMC
Hybrid linked mode explained

Covered at a high level what provision management, remediation/troubleshooting, release coordination, auto-scaler, configuration management, telemetry and alerting service do

Broke down the networking concepts – recommended watching/attending Ray Budavari’s session to learn much much more.
Walked through the flow of a failure of a host- covered all the players if what is required for VMware to fix the issues in an automated fashion.

Covered how there is an SRE team to ensure the SaaS service works as it should (copy steps from picture)

All these sessions make me feel you need to really learn AWS to a certain level so you understand what VPC’s are etc as a fair amount of people in the VMC sessions I’ve been to seem to struggle to understand the AWS side of the service.

Next I attended AWS Native Services Integration with VMware Cloud on AWS: Technical Deep Dive [LHC3376BUS]. – this sessions was really good and the live demo and technical depth was what i was hoping for from the previous session, Again I wrote down a bunch of notes from the session below and would highly recommend watching this session after the show

Nice to hear from the AWS side and what their side of the partnership is.
Integrations to things like S3, EC2, RDS, IAM,ACM,ELB, Route53, CloudFront,WAF, AWS Shield/Shield Advanced, Athena , QuickSight, Lambda, CodeDeploy
Covered the base topology

Recommended reporting services like cloudwatch and cloudtrail, VMware are using these as well for part of their monitoring for you
Gave a use case and how to deliver the services for the fake company ACME distribution
Did a demo of building and running all the components required by ACME utilising VMC and AWS services.

After this I participated in a design studio UX session where we went through vRealize Lifecycle manager and gave feedback on what I liked and didn’t like and what i expected. I really enjoyed this as it was just me and the engineer and seeing as I’ve done vRA,vRO etc I was able to give some solid feedback from someone who knows the products and how to install them outside the usage of lifecycle manager. The engineer was very grateful which i always nice to be able to help.

Gregg

August 29, 2017
by Gregg Robertson 2 Comments

VMworld Day 1 recap

VMworld kicked off formally today and there were whole bunch of announcements and some awesome sessions and demo’s I was able to attend and blog about but firstly I would like to recap Saturday and Sunday’s activities so if you just want to hear about today then skip the paragraphs below and go straight to the Monday/Today heading.

Saturday:

I purposely flew in on Friday fro the UK so that i could attend the VCDX workshop and then the VCDX Town hall afterwards. The VCDX workshop and town hall were hosted at the cosmopolitan hotel and the workshop started off early at 7:30 am with some breakfast/desert seeing as it was coffee and donuts. If you don;t know what the VCDX workshop is it is a workshop for those thinking of going for the VCDX soon and is aimed to give those aiming for it valuable information and advice around the whole process, what to do and not to do in your preparations and during the defence and also to clear up some possible misconceptions and ideally show that obtaining the VCDX is achievable with hard work and dedication. I’ve blogged about this achievability as well as my personal opinion of doing it for the “right” reasons here https://thesaffageek.co.uk/2017/02/17/why-do-you-want-the-vcdx-accreditation/ . It was really great to see that a very large amount of the people attending the workshop felt it was something they wanted to attempt and felt it was more of a realistic target after the workshop.

After this was the VCDX town hall which is for current VCDX to speak with the VCDX certification team, have a chance to hear from Pat Gelsigner the CEO of VMware and three of the VMware CTO’s before some food and drinks. The town hall was really good and there were some very tough questions asked of the certification team around the direction of the program, how we could get the certification known more widely and aid those looking to obtain it. Chris Colotti wrote a really pointed but accurate posting around a fair few of the topics brought up by the existing VCDX as despite what many might think current VCDX do want more people to join the ranks. We then had the honour of Pat Gelsigner speaking to us and answering some of out questions. It was greatly appreciated that Pat would take time out of his very busy schedule to spend time with us and as always you could see his passion for technology shining through. Next was the CTO panel with Chris Wolf, Guido Appenzeller and Ray O’Farrell. The panel was brilliant and again the three CTO’s were extremely interested to hear for the VCDX crowd and be open and honest with their future plans. Lastly was the drinks and food where we got to socialise which was really nice to chat and joke with fellow VCDX and learn what they are up to and doing.

Sunday:

Sunday is customarily when Partner exchange happened and this year was no different. Even though I work for a partner in Dell EMC I decided to instead attend and support the VMunderground and vBrownbag opening acts. The opening acts are a community event where a number of panels are run discussing various topics by the community for the community. I was very honoured to have been asked to be part of the second of the three panels of the day around How Failing Made Me Better. The panel was very enjoyable to be on and the advice given from all of the people on the panel seemed to be well taken by the crowd. As always the opening acts allowed me to also chat with others from the community some who i have known for years and others i have only met recently. It certainly helped that it was hosted at the beerhaus.

Media preview

After opening acts I wandered off to the solutions exchange to talk to some vendors as well as grab some food and drinks that were on offer. The solutions exchange was buzzing as you would expect and I managed to get over to the Datrium booth and collect my vExpert gift of an arbuboy. I then made my way back to the new york new york hotel for the VMunderground party which was happening at the beerhaus where I got to chat to loads of the community and meet up with some old friends. The VMUnderground party is always one of my favourites due to it always being in a location where you can chat to people without it being too dark or too loud (yes i realise i sound like an old man). After VMUnderground i made my way back to my hotel due to my need to be on a work conference call this morning.

Monday/Today

The day started off with me ensuring all my scheduled blogs had posted as the NDA for a number of the announcements was 5am this morning. I then made my way to the convention centre and decided to watch the keynote from the VMVillage bloggers tables as I had a session straight after the keynote and I wanted to make sure I made it in adequate time. There were a number of announcements in the keynote but the ones that I feel were the best coincided with the ones i blogged about which were:

After the keynote I attended a VMware Design Studio UX design session around VMware Cloud on AWS. The feedback around the UX seemed to be really helpful to the team and one portion I found really great was the number of woman that were part of the various team from VMware which is brilliant and certainly inspiring for my daughters futures if they decide to pursue technology as a career.

Next I attended a session on VMware Cloud on AWS: Storage Deep Dive which was highly informative and gave some great overviews of not just VMC’s usage of vSAN in the current offering but also some possible future plans around Disaster Recovery, usage of various storage providers technologies, options for backup via partners like Dell EMC and growth abilities of the solution both outwards and upwards. When the recordings of the sessions come out I highly recommend watching this one. I really like the way VMC is heading and I think it will be a brilliant offering and product.

After this I attended an invite only demo of VMware Cloud on AWS. The demo was highly informative and again I was left feeling really excited and enthused by the direction the offering is taking and the possibilities of it. When the partnership was first announced i was very unsure of how it would work and fit but I can certainly see the use cases and potential and now with VMware Cloud Services having been announced it means that you will be able to mange not just VMC but also Google Cloud Platform, Azure and your traditional vSphere environment in VMware Cloud Foundation.

The announcements have been really good and with today’s now released GA of Pivotal Container Service there are very exciting things coming from VMworld from VMware and their eco-system of partners.

Gregg

August 28, 2017
by Gregg Robertson 4 Comments

#NSX Announcements at #VMworld US

At todays VMworld US there are a number of NSX announcements as NSX grows it’s capabilities and features and raises the bar for SDN. Some of of the announcements at todays VMworld US conference in Las Vegas will be around a new version of NSX-T called NSX-T 2.0, VMware Cloud on AWS which provides a service that delivers a seamless extension for vSphere customers into AWS and NSX Secure Networking and the the ability for network virtualisation and security for native AWS workloads.

Firstly if you don’t know what NSX-T is then I would recommend you read the overview of it here or register for session NET1510BU . For version 2.0 there are a number of announcements, the high level such as:

Cloud-Native App Frameworks
- VMs and Containers
- CNI Plugin Integration for Kubernetes (K8s) /Pivotal Cloud Foundry
- NSX-T PaaS /CaaS Integration
  - NSX integration with Kubernetes
  - NSX Container Plugin (NCP) for integration with PaaS with NSX Manager
  - Native Container Networking:
    - IP address per container / POD
    - Container Network integration with DC network via routing and BGP
    - Micro-segmentation – inter project and intra project isolation
    - Network and Security Automation – created as part of app deployment
    - Multi-tenant network topologies
    - Multiple Containers (PODs for K8s) in a VM (Container Host)
    - Support for vSphere and KVM

For VMware cloud on AWS there is an extensive amount of announcements and features about the service but for NSX in particular it is about centralised management, comprehensive visibility and enterprise-class security

Discovery

Visibility into apps and resources they consume
Analyse usage and utilisation across clouds
Possible with AWS (Native), Azure (Compute) and Private Cloud (vSphere)

Cost Insight

Accounting and cost optimisation for multiple clouds
Track and analyse your costs and trends
Possible with AWS (Native), Azure (Compute) and Private Cloud (vSphere)

Network Insight

Operational visibility, control and compliance across clouds
Optimise performance, health and availability
Possible with AWS (Native) and Private Cloud (vSphere)

Secure Networking

Secure networks with micro-segmentation
Create private networks within or across clouds
Possible with AWS (Native)

For NSX Secure Networking

On-Prem Automation and Networking & Security

Multi-domain networking
Automation with OpenStack
Micro-segmentation
Consistent and scalable micro segmentation security – unified policy management across multiple public clouds
Precise control over cloud networking topologies, traffic flows, IP addressing and protocols
Standard network data works with existing Day 2 operations tools and processes

If you are looking for some top sessions around these announcements then the following top 10 networking and security sessions should be a great fit:

Transforming networking and security for the digital era – TS7003KU –Tuesday August 29,12:30pm – 13:30 pm
Use virtualization to secure application infrastructure – SAI3237SU – Monday August 28,11am – 12pm
Why networking is at the heart of digital transformation – NET3235SU – Monday August 28,1pm – 2pm
NSX everywhere: The network bridge for on premises, private, and native public clouds – NET3236SU – Monday August 28,4pm – 5pm
Introduction to VMware NSX – NET1152BU – Monday August 28,4pm – 5pm
Application security reviews made easy with VMware latest security solution – SAI2895BU – Tuesday August 29,4pm – 5pm
The NSX practical path – NET3282BU – Monday August 28,2:30pm – 3:30pm
When clouds collide, lightning strikes – NET3282BU – Wednesday August 30, 1pm – 2pm
The future of networking and security with NSX-T – NET1821BU – Tuesday August 29, 11:30am –12:30pm
Container networking with NSX-T overview – NET1521GU – Monday August 28, 1pm – 2pm

Gregg

August 28, 2017
by Gregg Robertson 3 Comments

VMware AppDefense Announced at #VMworld US

At todays VMworld US there are a number of announcements coming out but one of the big ones in my opinion is the announcement of VMware AppDefense.

AppDefense provides an number of features, notably:

Application Control: Comprehensive view/grouping of VMs in the datacenter, their intended state and allowed behaviour
Runtime anomaly detection and response: Monitor the real time state of the OS and user applications – alert and control process, network, and kernel events
Process Analysis: Built-in process analysis engine gives overall process maliciousness as well as specific traits that are potentially suspicious
Orchestrate Remediation: Our infrastructure reach provides a more effective way to orchestrate remediation during a security incident

Application Scope

Security Team View of Intended Application State
Security-team owned viewpoint of application infrastructure
Provides a lens to evaluate runtime behaviour against known good
An abstraction to validate and audit the placement of security policy

Attesting Runtime Behaviour

Writing Rules to Inspect Validate Endpoint Processes and Network Connectivity
Enforce behaviour by blocking activity or audit/alerting
Evaluate a number of endpoint events from a trusted location:

Process network activity (inbound/outbound)
Process activity
OS Kernel
Virtual Enclave

Built-In Process Analysis

Deep Level In-Memory Analysis of Process Capability to Provide Detail on Anomalies
Evaluate the in-memory state of a process before/after anomalies are recognized
Does not rely on signatures or hashes at all
Provides overall risk score and individual traits within the process

Orchestrating Remediation

Blocking Behaviour or Responding on Alarms Through Virtual Infrastructure
Each rule can be associated with a recommended remediation workflow
Alerts integrate with standard SIEM tools and other notification methods
Enforcement can be automated or manual
Leverages the mutability of the virtual infrastructure (ESX layer and NSX security policy)

AppDefense Architecture

I’m really looking forward to learning more about AppDefense and seeing how it can fit my customers needs.

Gregg

August 28, 2017
by Gregg Robertson 3 Comments

VMware Cloud Services

Customers aren’t just running their workloads in their vSphere datacenters but are also now running more and more workloads natively in the public cloud providers and this can be a challenge for businesses who might not have the current skillset or mechanisms to monitor and manage these public workloads. VMware have now announced a way of homogenising the cloud and providing a mechanism for you to consume all the cloud providers and manage across these various providers where you can manage, provision and migrate workloads easily between you on premises environment to the public cloud providers.

VMware did a survey recently and the amount of their customers who are using or evaluating a public cloud provider has now almost reached 100 percent with the feedback being 97% and an increase of 11% since 2016.

The amount of workloads these surveyed customers have running in these public clouds however are still very small although most see it where being on multiple public cloud providers is the ideal end state but this brings two major problems:

Operational Complexity

Application and management tool sprawl
Inefficient cost management across multiple clouds
Compliance gaps due to different architectures

Increased Risk Exposure

Inconsistent security architectures and policies
Lack of visibility into and across multiple clouds
Lack of expertise on specific platforms

For VMware Cloud Services there are mainly five different services that are being announced at todays VMworld and they are:

Discovery: Holistic View of All Cloud Resources

Visibility into apps and resources they consumer
Analyse usage and utilisation across clouds
Public and private cloud inventory and metrics collection in minutes
AWS and Azure inventory collection using cloud user credentials and APIs
Private cloud inventory collection using a lightweight VMware vCenter data-collector
Central repository for all public and private cloud inventory
Inventory search based on cloud resource attributes
Expose native cloud tags and group cloud resources to simplify reporting, operations and actions across other VMware Cloud Services
Single place to add public and private cloud account credentials
Secure management of cloud credentials and account owners
Shared configurations of Clouds Accounts for data collections across multiple VMware Cloud Services

Cost Insight

Accounting and cost optimisation for multiple clouds
Track and analyse your costs and trends
Estimate total cloud spend across public and private clouds
Compare spend by cloud providers, regions, accounts or other groups
Analyse costs and drill deeper to identify key cost drivers
Track cloud costs over time and project future costs based on historical data
Compare actual spend with assigned budgets
Share cloud costs and budget comparisons with application teams
Identify powered off virtual machines
Identify unused cloud storage resources
Customise threshold limits for identifying unused resources

VMware NSX Cloud

Secure networks with micro-segmentation
Create private networks with or across clouds
Network abstraction through overlays
Segmentation control independent of cloud
Stamp out consistent overlay networks
Ops consistency and improved visibility
Improved IT efficiency and lower OpEx

Network Insight

Operational visibility, control and compliance across clouds.
Optimise performance, health and availability
Understand application dependencies by analysing traffic flow patterns between VMs
accelerate micro-segmentation planning and use firewall rule recommendations to improve cloud security
Continuously monitor, troubleshoot and audit cloud security posture over time
Discover AWS,VMW and physical network infrastructure resources including AWS VPCs, security groups and cloud tags
Troubleshoot network connectivity issues between VMs with visibility into virtual and physical data center network layers
Rapidly identify issues through pro-active events and alerts
Scale across large NSX deployments with powerful visualisations for topology and health
Avoid configuration issues with NSX deployments based on health checklists
Quickly pinpoint issues for resolution with the help of intuitive UI and search

Wavefront

Metrics-driven monitoring and real-time analytics
Real time metrics monitoring at scale
“First pane of glass” visibility
Shared Model of application/system for both developers and ops

If you are interested in any of the solutions above then I would recommend getting to the VMware booth at VMworld US if attendign the conference or speak to your VMware sales executive if you aren’t attending to get a demo setup

Gregg

June 30, 2017
by Gregg Robertson Leave a comment

Why you should attend VMworld US

VMworld US is just around the corner (58 days to be exact) and I have been graciously allocated a bloggers pass for the conference and given backing from my company Dell EMC to attend. This will be my sixth time attending and my third time attending the US one. VMworld has something for everyone from those just learning about virtualisation to those who have been part of the industry for a number of years and are looking to those in depth sessions and discussions with the evangelists and guru’s of VMware plethora of offerings and solutions. If you haven’t yet booked your place then let me list some of the reasons I think you should attend as they are the reasons I try to attend every year:

On the Sunday of VMworld is Partner Exchange and TAM day where VMware partners can attend exclusive sessions talking about everything from future roadmaps for all of VMware product lines but also new solutions VMware are looking to release. The sessions are always extremely interesting and from my experience are the best chance to speak to the “rockstars” who evangelise and breath the various solutions. If you aren’t a partner or are looking for something community driven then the vBrownbag crew along with the VMUnderground crew are again running opening acts and then the VMUnderground party in the Evening (unfortunately the party tickets are now sold out). I will be attending opening acts and have actually submitted a panel idea that I hope will be accepted.

My next reason is about the community again but this time the ability to network with like minded individuals at the bloggers tables, fellow vExperts, fellow VCDX at the VCDX townhall on the Saturday before VMworld and all those I hope to meet over lunch and at the vBrownbag TechTalks who are working in collaboration with the VMTN team to run the infamous TechTalks. If you have never heard of the TechTalks then a brief overview is below:
- Tech Talks originated at VMworld 2012 where they provided an opportunity for community members, whose presentation submissions were not accepted into the main catalogue, to present the core of a topic. #TechTalks are a ten minute presentation by a community member for the benefit of the community. Since almost everyone working in technology has solved problems and learned something almost everyone could present a #TechTalk. The format can be a slide deck or simply talking, they are usually about how to solve a problem or get the most out of a product. The TechTalk is captured on video and published on the vBrownBag YouTube channel.
- If the conference Internet connection allows, the talk is also live streamed from the show.
- #TechTalks are for community members to reach other community members, any topic that will help other people is good. The one thing that TechTalks are not is an opportunity to present the corporate slide deck about a great product you would like us to buy. #TechTalks are about up skilling and education, the only marketing should be from the TechTalk sponsors who help make the whole thing happen.
Next are the breakout sessions, group discussions and expert panels. The content catalog is now live and it is packed with amazing sessions by some of the biggest names in the industry and those up and coming in the industry. I’m personally really looking forward to all of the VMware Cloud on AWS sessions as it bridges my existing knowledge and interest in VMware with my exponentially growing interest in AWS. The sessions are also recorded so if you can’t make it to a sessions due to a conflict then by registering for VMworld you get access to all the recorded sessions after the conference for you to watch in your own time.
My next reason are the VMware Hands-On Labs which cover all VMware technologies and allow you to play with the latest releases and offerings not just from VMware but also VMware partners. Alike to the sessions the hands on labs are available after the conference but I would recommend going to a few that really interest you (again I’ve allocated some walk trough’s of the VMConAWS solution) and then you can do the remaining ones after the conference. If however you really want to hit the labs hard then I know they normally give a free pass to next years VMworld to the top few people who have completed the most labs.
The solution exchange is my next reason as this is the perfect opportunity to speak to those vendors who are offering the latest solution that might save your business and team loads of money and or time and this is the perfect opportunity to speak to that vendor who might be offering the solution that will fix the issues your company is experiencing and take that knowledge back to your company and impress your management with how you’ve found a great solution and to prove that your going to VMworld was worth it and that they should send you again next year. I would be remise if I didn’t encourage you to go speak to Dell EMC and hear about their amazing offerings all the way through the stack as well as pre-packaged and validated solutions for SMB’s all the way to large enterprises.
If you are looking to obtain that next VMware certification or want to speak to the certification team about the performance of your latest VCAP-Deploy exam then there are loads of VMware Certification opportunities. You can also book reduce cost exams at VMworld which I have personally never decided to do but loads of the community swear by it and due to the reduced cost it means if you unfortunately don’t make it then it isn’t that much of a dent to your pocket and lets you scope out the exam to better prepare for next time.
Last is the parties and due to the conference being in Vegas you can imagine the amount of them there are and the amount of meet ups after the parties that happen. There are parties for everyone so if you are looking for a chilled drinks evening then there are loads of opportunities for that and if you want to party all night (save some sleep to be able to attend the conference) then there are plenty of those as well. If you haven;t got a ticket to VMUnderground on Sunday then the Welcome Reception kicks off the conference experience with food, drinks, and networking in the Solutions Exchange. There are normally loads of announcements about the parties closer to the time so keep an eye out on social media as the parties fill up fast and remember the strip is big so unless you plan to uber it then getting to three parties in a night might not be possible. The VMworld party finishes off the conference on Wednesday night, the venue hasn’t been announced as far as I’ve seen but he bands have been and teenage Gregg is super excited about it as Blink 182 and Bleachers will be performing. Last years aprty at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway was really fun and fall out boy were awesome in my opinion

If you are looking to attend then sign up here https://reg.rainfocus.com/flow/vmware/vmworldus17/reg/account?src=so_590b899c53598&cid=70134000001K6I4 and make sure to come find me and say hi as well as i encourage you to attend the TechTalks which are due to be added to the content catalog very soon.

Gregg

April 5, 2017
by Gregg Robertson Leave a comment

My First VMware Certification #vExpert NSX

The VMware vExpert NSX program is running a community blog series and this post is about my first VMware certification.

Why did you decide to take your first test and what was your motivation?

I had been allocated to look after the VMware 3.5 estate of my old company and decided that trying to pass the VCP3.5 was the best way for me to learn VMware. I followed this up with the VCP4 which had been released around the same time in quick succession to help me learn what was coming in the next version.

What was your journey for the first test?

The VCP3.5 was my first one but due to me doing the VCP4 almost immediately after the journey actually merged covering both which I blogged about on my blog here https://thesaffageek.co.uk/2009/12/02/vmware-certified-professional-vsphere-passed/ . VMware was very new to me then but the community was in it’s relative infancy in 2009 and twitter had a small but hard-core group that I loved being a part of and learning from some of the famous pioneers like Scott Lowe, Duncan Epping and Frank Denneman to name but a few. My preparing for the exam started off my interest and now continued link to writing up the study resources (Part 1 and Part 2 ) I used for the exams which became very popular and actually led me to getting my first vExpert the year after.

Were you nervous, how did you study?

I was very nervous as I actually mentioned in my posting for VCP4 as the technology was very new to me as I had up until that point been a Microsoft fan boy having done the MCP’s and MCSE’s and virtualisation plus what it could do was in it’s infancy (at least in my opinion then) . How i studied for it had been covered in the blog postings I mentioned earlier around the VCP4 (Part 1 and Part 2 ) and the methods I followed then I still follow largely today around using multiple techniques to learnt he material such as books, podcasts, CBT and good old lab time. I also had much more time then to read blogs announcing the latest features or what people were having issues with and how they fixed them. This interest in learning what issues people had and how they fixed them as well as trying to help people with issues drew me into the VMware communities and which led me to become Master status and being asked to become a VMware communities moderator.

How did it benefit your career as well as your community?

Immense amounts as just reading the posting around my passing the VCP4 reminds me how much I’ve learnt over the time from doing those exams as a junior IT Technician freshly “off the boat” from South Africa to a Cloud Practice Solution Lead and VCDX #205. The community involvement was what really got me excited and I made some great vFriends whom I am still very friendly with as well as countless others from VMUG’s to VMworld’s to Twitter to the communities to now being part of the vBrownbag crew that I learnt so much from in the early days. The VMware community was amazing then and even though some people have moved onto other things that ethos is still around and is something I personally try give back to the community.

Knowing what you know today, what are some of the pain points in this certification that you can share with your audience?

It varies based on the level of the VMware certification you are going for. For the VCP it is now much easier to learn about the technology as there is a sheer abundance of resources out there to learn from whereas the amount in the 3.5 days was much less although the suite of products and amount of features were much less then so I think it balances out somewhat. As with any certification it is about spending the time understanding it and for me as I’ve mentioned before I sometimes find different methods of learning it helps explain it better as sometimes reading page after page of a book can make you lose focus but a video by the vBrownbag where you hear it from someone in the community can keep your interest much more and maybe even explain it in terms you would have never thought of.

If you are going for the VCP6 then why not have a look at my study resources page and good luck on the journey. If you told me in those VCP3.5 days that I would be a VCDX doing enterprise level work like I am now I would have never believed you. Also with so many paths such as NV,DTM and CMA the amount of amazing technology you can learn to advance you career never mind the integrations with Openstack, AWS and Azure it’s still an exciting time to being doing virtualisation.

Gregg

February 17, 2017
by Gregg Robertson 4 Comments

Why do you want the #VCDX certification?

A recent twitter comment or should I say declaration by Craig Kilborn reminded me that I wanted to write a posting about doing the VCDX for the right reasons (Disclaimer: this is my opinion and if you disagree then that is perfectly fine). Also I am really looking forward to the posting Craig is going to put out as he was and still is one of the most prepped people I know for the VCDX defences yet sadly failed it.

When people come up to me at conferences or VMUG’s and chat to me about my VCDX journey and my achieving the VCDX certification and state they are looking to start the journey towards getting a VCDX number I always ask them one initial question: Why do you want the VCDX certification? The VCDX and path has been an amazing experience and learning curve for me and I know many many others and I personally feel you should do it for the cliché reason of “for the journey and not the destination” as the amount you need to learn and the breadth of not just technical skills but also public speaking, white boarding skills, stress management skills and the biggest one I had – realising how little you actually know and still need to learn is the best reason to do it. I know I ruffled a few VCDX feathers on a Geek Whisperers podcast appearance I did where I stated that getting the VCDX won’t always mean you will get a top role at VMware or get that six figure salary or automatically get that promotion. But the skills you have learnt and perfected along the way to obtaining your VCDX might bring some of those. I still believe this and if you do it for those reasons you might be disappointed once you get your number.

I use certifications to force myself to learn new technologies and for me the VCDX track was something that was going to push me to learn VMware technologies to a level only a certain amount of people globally had “proven” this level of knowledge. What I didn’t realise was that the VCDX was going to force me to not just know VMware technologies to an expert level but also all the supporting technologies around it and how the VCDX requires people to have a very strong holistic understanding of all the technologies in a solution and how differing decisions can/would have impacts on the success of the design/solution. So even though this might sound a level that is daunting to you (it was certainly for me and to be honest it still is a work in progress due to the ever changing landscape of IT) the amount you learn about all the supporting technologies, from people also aiming for the certification as well as the community around it is priceless and for me has been the main “prize” of doing the VCDX.

Last year October I defended a vRealize Automation design I had done in my spare time for a real world customer along with the infamous Rene van den Bedem and Andrea Siviero to hopefully obtained my VCDX6-CMA. I was ultimately unsuccessful in this attempt but gained an untold amount of experience not just from building a VCDX level design for vRA along with the required supporting documentation but again realising where there were gaps in my knowledge that needed to be filled. One of these was NSX where I knew a certain working level but in hindsight I naively should have realised the amount NSX played a part in our solution and even though the defence was about vRA the impacts on the decisions and design we had made for NSX was a direct influencer on if the solution succeeded or failed. From this I have been up skilling on NSX and last week Friday I passed the first step in this by obtaining my VCP6-NV. I will also most likely resubmit for my VCDX6-CMA in the future because 1. I seem to be a masochist and 2. I fully believe a quote from a video I used to watch in prep for my VCDX-DCV second defence of “Pain is temporary, it may last for a minute, or an hour, or a day or even a year but it will subside, if you quit however the pain will last forever” and I can’t help myself but want to complete what I started or else I am accepting the failure. From needing to better my knowledge of NSX I have seen a direct impact and benefit to my role as a Solution Lead in Dell EMC’s Cloud Practice and the methods I learnt and used for my DCV and CMA submissions have proven untold benefit on the deliveries I have had to produce on projects I have worked on.

I’ve possibly been as clear as mud in this posting but my main personal thoughts and opinions about wanting to go for the VCDX are:

Do it as it has been an amazing learning experience and continues to be for me.
Don’t be afraid to fail it as for me it has been the best way to truly show me where I need to be better.
Do it to be a better architect and have a more well rounded knowledge as the IT landscape is forever changing and you never know when one of those supporting technology skills will maybe get your foot in the door to a new exciting opportunity
The community around the VCDX is amazing and 98% of VCDX’s are more than willing to help you along your journey but you have to take the initiative as no one is going to carry you. As Rebecca Fitzhugh a relatively recent VCDX wrote about, a good mentor never coaches you but challenges, encourages and provides “wisdom” when needed.
There is a fair likelihood that once you achieve the VCDX your company and/or boss will have no idea what it really means and most recruiters are more excited about someone being a vExpert than a VCDX but the skills you learnt in the journey towards VCDX will be what might get you that new role or promotion but don’t do the certification for those reasons as you might be disappointed that not much changes initially if possibly at all once you get a VCDX number. It’s actually one of the reasons I ask “ Life after the VCDX? How did your company respond? Was it worth it?” in my VCDX Spotlight postings as for most the change is minor and might only happen a fair time later.
There is a substantial amount of personal time and effort that goes into the journey and if you don’t use it for all the lessons along the way then once you achieve it you might be saddened by what is behind the Wizard of VCDX’s curtain.

If you are realistically aiming for the VCDX(You have the VCAp’s/VCIX in your chosen track or are on the cusp of having them) then I run a VCDXPrepGroup slack channel where people also aiming for the VCDX can work together and where we have almost a dozen VCDX mentors covering all four of the tracks. Message me and I’ll add you to the group but be warned the group won’t give you anything that will break the NDA’s and you won’t be supplied people’s VCDX submissions so you will have to put in the work, the group just provides the platform to get some valuable feedback and link you to fellow VCDX Wannabe’s.

Lastly good luck to those that defended VCDX this week (a fair few from the slack group) and for those aiming for future defences good luck on the journey.

Gregg