TheSaffaGeek

My ramblings about all things technical

Tag Archives: VMworld 2016


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vSphere 6.5 Operations Management Announcements

At today’s VMworld Europe conference in Barcelona VMware are announcing vSphere 6.5. There are a plethora of new features and fixes in this series of postings I plan to cover the ones that caught my eye and so for the first second one let us cover the updates to vSphere 6.5 Operations Management.

vR Ops – New Home Dashboard

The vR Ops home dashboard as part of vSOM has had a makeover where you can now filter and find important things to the environment easily such as

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Quickly identity top problem objects

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Filter by severity

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Condensed alert and information and remediation guidance

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Enhanced vSphere DRS Cluster settings dashboard

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Conveniently monitor each cluster workload

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Updated Workload Utilisation Dashboard

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Easily visualise separate workloads

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Quicker access to rebalance plan

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vR Ops – Additional Improvements

vCenter Configuration

  • Combined Configuration of vCenter and Action Adapters
  • One-button ease of enabling or disabling actions
  • Create and apply global monitoring goals to multiple vCenters

Automation

  • New CaSA public REST API interface
  • Documentation available@ <vrops>/casa/api-guide.html
  • Allows for cluster and node management

Security and Compliance

  • Added support for the vSphere 6.0 hardening guide
  • New certificate validation checks
  • Import certificates via CaSA REST API

Log Insight Integration

  • Log Insight management pack comes pre-installed
  • Improvements of Log Insight alerting to vR Ops

Log insight – New Clarity UI

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Log Insight – Additional Improvements

vSphere Content Pack

  • New vCenter Server Dashboards
    • Overview
    • Performance
  • Updated Dashboards
    • General- Problems
    • vSphere – vMotion

Widget Updates

  • New Event Widgets
    • Event Types
    • Event Trends
  • New vSphere widgets:
    • Replicated VMs
    • Recovered VMs
    • Upgraded VMs

Other Notables

  • Added PSP PhoneHome Support
  • API-Based Improvements
    • Install
    • Upgrade
    • Query API Enhancements
  • Streaming Support Bundles

Make sure you attend one of (if not all) the multiple sessions by Kyle Gleed to learn and see more if you are at the show or watch once the recordings have been released

Gregg


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vSphere 6.5 VCSA and Clients Announcements

At today’s VMworld Europe conference in Barcelona VMware are announcing vSphere 6.5. There are a plethora of new features and fixes in this series of postings I plan to cover the ones that caught my eye and so for the first one let us cover the vSphere 6.5 VCSA and Clients announcements.

Overview

  • Native high availability – An all new HA solution that reduces RTO and is easy to configure. No dependency on expensive 3rd party database clustering solutions of RDMs while eliminating the single point of failure for vCenter Server
  • VMware Update Manager – is now integrated into the vCenter Server Appliance. Simple, enabled by default, and removes the requirement for a separate Windows VM.
  • Improved appliance management – an improved vCenter Server Appliance Management Interface (VMAI) brings more CPU, Memory, Network and Database monitoring right into the UI. Reduces reliance on CLI for simple monitoring tasks.
  • Native Backup and Restore – Simplified backup and restore with a new native file-based solution. Restore the vCenter server configuration to a fresh appliance and stream backups to external storage using HTTP, FTP or SCP protocols (Only available on the vCenter Server appliance)

VCSA Deployment

  • Installer support now for windows, Mac and Linux
  • An updated menu where you cannot just select to install or upgrade but also migrate and restore.

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  • VMware vSphere Update Manager included
  • VCSA and PSC install is now a two stage process
    • Stage 1- Deploy OVF
    • Stage 2 – Configuration
  • The benefits of the 2-stage deployment are:
    • Improved validation and checks
    • Manual snapshot between stages for rollback
    • Create a template for additional deployments

VCSA Migration – 6.5

  • 6.5 support for Windows vCenter 5.5 or 6.0 -> 6.5
  • Migrations for both embedded and external topologies
  • VMware vSphere Update Manager included as part of migration
  • Assumes the identity of the source Windows vCenter (UUID, IP, OS Name, Certificates)
  • Embedded and external Database support: MSSQL, MSSQL Express, Oracle
  • Migration Assistant pre-checks
  • Option to select historical and performance data

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VCSA Monitoring

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  • New vCenter Server Appliance Management Interface
  • Built in monitoring: Network, CPU and Memory
  • Visibility to vPostgres DB
  • Remote syslog configuration
  • vMon: Enhanced watchdog functionality

Native vCenter Server Appliance Backup & Restore

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  • Removes dependency on 3rd party backup solutions
  • Restore vCenter Server instance to a brand new appliance
  • Supports backup/restore of VCSA & PSC appliances
  • Includes embedded and external deployments
  • Supported protocols include:
    • HTTP/S
    • SC
    • FTP/S
  • Option for Encryption
  • Restore directly from VCSA ISO

Native vCenter High Availability

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  • VCSA Only
  • Active/Passive with witness
  • Required network configuration:
    • Eth0 – Public network
    • Eth1 – Private network (added during configuration)
  • Two configuration options: Basic and Advanced

Client Integration Plugin Deprecation

  • In 6.5 CIP is no longer required
    • Replaced by native browser functions
    • Optional plugin called Enhanced Authentication Plugin for smart card and Integrate Windows Authentication login capabilities.

vSphere HTML5 Web Client

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· Clarity UI standard

· No browser plugins

· Integrated into vCenter Server 6.5

· Fully supports Enhanced Linked Mode

Make sure you attend one of the multiple sessions by Emad Younis and Adam Eckerle to learn and see more.

Gregg


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#VMworld Day 2

My VMworld day 2 started with getting into the VMvillage so that I could write up my #VMworld Day 1 posting as well as make sure I was near the vBrownbag presentation area so that I could setup whilst the keynote was displayed over the screens in the VMvillage.

I am not going to go over over the keynote point by point as to be honest I was half setting up for vBrownbag and also only paid full attention when Kit Colbert was presenting around cloud native apps as that is the bits I am extremely interested in and with VMware supposedly stopping their licencing/agreement with SUSE and planning to “drink their own champagne” and use their own code moving forward.I strongly believe this is the next step in the journey of those who were server admins, then virtualisation admins and now holistic/full stack Virtualisation admins. If you want to watch the keynote then you can watch it here.

After setting up for the vBrownbag TechTalks I attended an invitation only vRealize Automation workshop in the Hands on Labs hosted by Jad El Zein which was amazing and has certainly shown me the amount of progress VMware has made and will be making with containers and reigning in the management and lifecycle of DevOps for their customers.

After the session I made my way back to the vBrownbag area where we ran sessions consistently for the rest of the day. you can watch all the recordings from Day1 and Day2 on the the YouTube channel here

I also wandered into the solutions exchange as I had heard a rumour that Anxcient had a VCDX gift of a poker set. The poker set gift rumour was true and it is certainly a great bit of swag and a good way of alerting a group of highly skilled people about your company

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I ended the day fairly low key after getting a wholesome meal at a restaurant nearby the conference and then made my way to the Bellagio fountains which was really awesome and is something I always wanted to see as I don’t know when or if i will be back into Las Vegas.

Today the vBrownbag TechTalks continue from 11am PST. You can watch the live stream here and as per usual they will be recorded and uploaded as quickly as we can upload them.

 

Gregg


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#VMworld Day 1

Yesterday was the official first day of VMworld for those that are not partners. The day started for me with a bit of breakfast at the conference with Rene van den Bedem (VCDX133) after which we made our way to the bloggers area which had already started to fill up with bloggers and those deciding to not venture into the keynote hall but rather watch the keynote on the big screens in the VMVillage.

I’m not going to do a blow-by-blow analysis of the keynote but would rather recommend you  watch the keynote recording here. Some highlights from the keynote for me were:

  • 23,500 attendees (I wonder if cheaper hotel rooms helped this number)
  • 21 alumnus get lifetime passes for them and their spouses
  • By 2021 June 29th 3:57 the enterprise with be 50/50 in the cloud
  • By 2030 52% of all workloads will be public cloud.
  • Tech Vendors are #1 for embracing the Cloud.
  • The Cross Cloud Architecture was announced. You can see the whitepaper for the Cloud Foundation here
  • VMware Cloud Foundation as a Service first partnership is with IBM
  • A pet hate of mine that both Pat Gelsigner and a number of others used on premise. As Smeagol would say

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After the keynote the #vBrownbag TechTalks kicked off with the vExpert Daily and ran almost continuously for the rest of the day with a new session every 15-20 minutes to finish up with us having streamed and recorded 20 sessions which we are very pleased with. You can see all the recordings on our YouTube channel here.

I also snuck out during the day to pick up some exclusive #vExpert Swag like the VMworld Survival Kit from Cohesity with was a Timbuk2 bag with a portable charger, usb stick, water bottle and multi charger cables. A very good idea by their marketing, so much so they are having to mail a whole bunch as they ran out by lunchtime.

We finished the last vBrownbag near 5pm after which I made my way back to my room to drop off my bag then went early to the VMware Code Hackathon. I purposely didn’t bring a laptop so that i could just watch without showing my lack of programming knowledge but i still managed to have loads of brilliant conversations and numerous discussions around the VCDX Study/Mock group I run for those realistically looking to obtain the VCDX. The hackathon was a great success and certainly linked up like-minded people where everyone could learn and make connections whilst having some nice food and drinks.

Today the vBrownbag TechTalks continue from 11am PST. You can watch the live stream here and as per usual they will be recorded and uploaded as quickly as we can upload them.

Gregg


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#VMworld Day 0

As is customary, VMworld US starts on Sunday with the Partner Exchange events as well as an opportunity for people to register and receive their VMworld badge, bag and initial swag.

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This year I am attending as part of the vBrownbag crew and so Sunday is a big day for us as we run Opening Acts with the VMUnderground crew. This year we have also included the vBrisket crew for a nice BBQ (Braai) for lunch. The panels were very well attended and there was really good audience participation. You can watch all of the Opening Acts on the vBrownbag YouTube channel.

vBrisket was amazing with some seriously nice food where I got to chat to a number of people I only know from the twitterverse and talk some VCDX with Rebecca Fitzhugh, Mike Burkhart and Brett Guarino after thier recent VCDX attempts (NDA retaining)

I then attended the VMworld Solutions Exchange for the Welcome party sponsored by Accenture  and had an amazing preview of the work VMware can do with Business Critical Apps by Niran Chen. Make sure you go by and see the demo near the VMware booth. We also had a nerdy #beVCDX picture showing 7 VCDX among the 5 of us (seeing as Niran and Augustin are double VCDX’s). I the picture is @NiranEC @sammcgeown @amalanco @iam_andysmith and I.

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The VMunderground party was hosted at the nine fine irishmen bar in the NYNY casino and as per usual it was the best best party for Sunday evening (sorry VMUG I am making assumptions here)

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I ended the day not too late due to some jetlag and also needing to be spritely for the VMVillage where the vBrownbag Techtalks are being run where we live stream them as well as record them for uploading to the vBrownbag YouTube channel.

Gregg