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VMware Cloud Foundation

VMware Cloud Director 10.6.1: Taking Cloud Management to New Heights

by Tommy Grot
written by Tommy Grot 7 minutes read

VMware has just released an exciting update Cloud Director 10.6.1—to revolutionize how we manage our cloud infrastructure. This new version is packed with powerful features designed to make IT professionals’ lives easier and their cloud services more efficient.

Cloud Director 10.6.1 offers a range of improvements, from simplifying complex tasks to providing advanced analytics. It’s all about making cloud management more accessible and effective. With this release, VMware aims to help organizations handle their hybrid cloud environments like never before.

In the following blog post, we’ll break down the exciting new features and explain how they can benefit you. Get ready to discover a streamlined approach to cloud infrastructure management!

Information from VMware’s Site Below:

Cloud computing is constantly evolving, and VMware Cloud Director (VCD) keeps advancing with new updates that strengthen security, streamline resource management, and give users greater control. VMware by Broadcom is thrilled to announce that VMware Cloud Director 10.6.1 is now available as part of the VCF (VMware Cloud Foundation) offering, starting January 31st, 2025. 

Smarter VM Placement with Guest OS Awareness

Now, you can easily place virtual machines (VMs) on specific hosts or clusters based on their guest operating system. With this feature, system administrators can define VM Groups for specific OS types ensuring proper placement and compliance across all tenants. This also helps organizations stay aligned with Microsoft and other vendor licensing requirements, simplifying compliance while optimizing resource management.

Use case:

  • Automatic enforcement ensures that VMs are always placed in their designated groups.
  • Seamless reconfiguration means existing VMs will adopt this placement rule the next time they undergo a reconfiguration, such as a power cycle or VM edit.

This feature enhances workload distribution and simplifies multi-tenant management, giving you greater control over VM performance and security.

Take Control of API Token Security

Security is crucial and VCD now includes the ability to force API token expiration. If a token needs to be revoked immediately—whether due to security concerns or administrative changes—administrators can now invalidate it instantly. This provides a proactive approach to managing API access and securing cloud environments.

Use case:

  • Instant access revocation for better security governance.
  • More control for administrators over authentication and access management.

Flexible IP Retention for Sub-Providers & Managed Organizations

Managing IP addresses has never been easier! VMware Cloud Director now allows custom IP retention periods at both the sub-provider and managed organization levels. This means IP addresses can be retained even when VMs are deleted or NICs are removed—regardless of whether they were assigned via Static Pool, Static Manual, or DHCP.

Use case:

  • Customizable IP retention ensures continuity and minimizes reallocation efforts.
  • Metadata-based configuration allows admins to define retention periods tailored to organizational needs.
  • Leverages the Manual Reservation API to preserve IPs for seamless redeployment.

No more lost IPs or unnecessary reconfigurations—just streamlined network management.

Gateway Firewall Enforcement

This update introduces the ability to explicitly activate or deactivate gateway firewall enforcement which is natively integrated within the VCF stack, with full visibility of enforcement status across T1 and T0 firewalls. Tenant and Sub-Tenant administrators both can view and override default settings, ensuring security configurations align with organizational policies.

Use case:

  • Full transparency into firewall enforcement status.
  • Administrative control to enable or disable enforcement as needed.

Stateful Firewall Access & Edge Cluster Configuration

Provider administrators now have improved control over the stateful firewall service, which is natively integrated within the VCF stack. With this update, they can restrict tenants from adding stateful firewall rules on T1, T0, and vApps unless the ANS security stack is entitled. Additionally, a new configuration option on edge clusters allows providers to enable or disable stateful firewalls as needed.

Use case:

  • Granular control over firewall rules ensures security compliance.
  • Edge cluster configuration adds another layer of flexibility in managing network security.

Custom Segment Profiles – Now Shareable!

Service providers can now share custom segment profiles with tenant organizations, making it easier to standardize networking policies across multiple tenants.

Use case:

  • Improved collaboration between providers and tenants.
  • Consistent networking configurations across multiple organizations.

IPv6 Transparent Load Balancing – It’s Back!

Support for IPv6 and VMware Avi Load Balancer Transparent Load Balancing is back! Pool members can now view the client’s source IP, enhancing visibility and network efficiency. To enable this feature, VMware Avi Load Balancer must be integrated with VMware Cloud Director.

Use case:

  • Seamless IPv6 support for modern networking needs.
  • Enhanced load balancing with transparent traffic routing.

This VMware Cloud Director update is all about greater control, improved security, and enhanced networking capabilities. Whether you’re optimizing VM placement, tightening API security, or refining firewall enforcement, these changes empower cloud providers and tenants alike.

Other Enhancements

  • Fixed Update Custom Task API – No more double execution issues. The API now works correctly on the first attempt.
  • Resolved All Virtual Data Centers View Issues – Admins can now seamlessly navigate the view without encountering errors.
  • Removed NSX MP API References – Say goodbye to outdated NSX MP API references for a more streamlined experience.

This VMware Cloud Director update is all about better control, improved security, and enhanced networking capabilities. Whether you’re optimizing VM placement, tightening API security, or refining firewall enforcement, these changes give more control to both cloud providers and tenants.

Reference for info above: https://blogs.vmware.com/cloudprovider/2025/02/vmware-cloud-director-10-6-1-is-here-whats-new.html

Upgrade Procedure

Before we start the upgrade, lets ensure we have the following:

  • Take Disk Level Snapshots of all VCD Appliances
  • Take Backup of VCD via VAMI
  • Downloaded Bits from Broadcom’s Support Portal

My Current Version:

3. Upload the VMware_Cloud_Director_10.6.1.11753-24532678_update.tar.gz into the VCD appliance.

Once the update file is uploaded, SSH into the first VCD Cell appliance.

After you will need to SSH into all appliances – and you will shutdown VMware Cloud Director by running the command below:

/opt/vmware/vcloud-director/bin/cell-management-tool -u administrator cell --shutdown

Note: It is required to upgrade the primary VCD appliance first!

4. Lets start upgrading VCD 10.6.1 on the first appliance. Below we will un tar the Update package into the /tmp/local-update-package directory.

5. Let Extract the update files into the directory we created above.

tar -zxf VMware_Cloud_Director_10.6.1.11753-24532678_update.tar.gz \-C /tmp/local-update-package/

6. Now that the update package has been unzipped we will set the local-update-package be the update directory.

vamicli	update --repo file:///tmp/local-update-package

7. Using the vamicli update –check we will check the repo for the newest upgrade of VCD.

vamicli update --check

Before we start the upgrade, it is important to take a backup of the VCD Appliances, log into each VCD Node via VAMI https://IP_Address:5480 and go to Backup and take a backup.

vamicli update --install latest

Now that the primary appliance is upgrade, repeat the steps above to the other appliances that need, steps 3 through 7.

After the other VCD appliances have the upgrade staged and updated now go back to the primary appliance and execute the upgrade utility.

/opt/vmware/vcloud-director/bin/upgrade

Follow the prompts from the upgrade utility, it will ask if you are ready for the upgrade and if you have taken a backup.

Once the first appliance is upgraded, then repeat the upgrade process above for the additional VCD appliances.

After the upgrade is complete, lets reboot the full appliance so for this option do No (N)

We have successfully upgraded VMware Cloud Director to 10.6.1!

Troubleshooting After Upgrade

I logged into my VCD, first thing I noticed is that I kept getting this error:
invoke : vmware.solution-addon-landing-zone-1.2.0-24052750-default – urn:vcloud:entity:vmware:solutions_add_on_instance:49a00e79-c73d-49be-b990-fbcfa9d8de5b.

Then i started looking into the issue and it was related to certificates that were expired or needed to be reapplied. After I added the new certificate the issue went away.

Go to Certificates Library and remove any expired certs and replace them with up-to-date ones.

Also update the Public Addresses Certificate with the same one you uploaded into the Certificates Library if you are using a Wildcard Cert or Multiple SANs within the certificate.

Once you have all the certificates updated and cleaned up, the Task will be running automatically and here it will look like this below:

Issue Fixed!

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VMware Cloud Foundation

VMware Cloud Foundation 5.2.1.1

by Tommy Grot
written by Tommy Grot 2 minutes read

VMware Cloud Foundation 5.2.1.1 Release Information

VMware Cloud Foundation 5.2.1.1 includes bug fixes and a new version of SDDC Manager.

You can upgrade to VMware Cloud Foundation 5.2.1.1 from VMware Cloud Foundation 5.2 or later.

Upgrading from 5.2.1:

SDDC Manager is the only component that requires an upgrade. See Independent SDDC Manager Upgrade using the SDDC Manager UI.

Upgrading from 5.2:

See Flexible BOM Upgrade in VMware Cloud Foundation. When selecting the target version for SDDC Manager choose the version listed in the BOM update table below.

Known issues:

  • In order to upgrade from 5.2 to 5.2.1.1, you must download the bundles for both SDDC Manager 5.2.1.0 and SDDC Manager 5.2.1.1.
  • The Bundle Management window in the SDDC Manager UI displays “VMware Cloud Foundation Update 5.2.1.0” instead of “VMware Cloud Foundation Update 5.2.1.1” for the 5.2.1.1 bundle. The description of the bundle correctly describes it as the upgrade bundle for 5.2.1.1. This is a cosmetic issue only and does not impact the upgrade.

VMware Cloud Foundation 5.2.1.1 contains the following BOM updates:

Software ComponentVersionDateBuild Number
SDDC Manager5.2.1.105 DEC 202424397777

Resolved Issues

The following issues are resolved in this release:

  • VMware Cloud Foundation 5.2 does not support the “License Now” option for vSAN add-on licenses based on capacity per tebibyte (TiB).
  • Remove unresponsive ESXi Host fails when SDDC Manager certificate does not have subject alternative name.

Upgrade Process

Take a snapshot or have a backup of SDDC Manager if anything goes wrong.

Update is downloading, should be ready within 10 minutes

Now that the upgrade is staged and the bundle has been automatically ingested you can start the upgrade!

The whole upgrade took – 20 minutes 22 seconds

Once your SDDC Manager is upgrade you may proceed to NSX and ESXi upgrades for this release, which the same upgrade process exists in my other blog posts.

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Events

VMware Explore 2024 | Las Vegas – Recap

by Tommy Grot
written by Tommy Grot 5 minutes read

VMware Explore Las Vegas

The Venetian Convention and Expo Center
August 26, 2024

Day 1

Its an absolute blast to connect with an incredible group of individuals from the VMware community during day 1 of VMware Explore 2024. The event brought together some of the brightest minds in the industry, including the prestigious VCDX (VMware Certified Design Expert) professionals (John Arrasjid & Mark Gabryjelsk)  and the dedicated team from VMware Education. (Karl Childs & James Robinson)

The energy and passion within the team was exciting, as we shared ideas, discussed emerging trends, and exchanged knowledge. It was inspiring to witness the depth of expertise and commitment demonstrated by each member of this remarkable team. Their dedication to driving innovation, educating the community, and shaping the future of virtualized infrastructure is truly admirable.

The Hub & Expo

This is an awesome area to connect with the community and networking space of VMware Explore. This area welcomes all attendees to kick back and relax, network and learn from the Code Community or Expert Bar. There are many activities and break out sessions and live streaming like the Broadcast Booth featuring theCUBE, the Spring Theater, Hands-on Labs and the VMware Rewards Space. The all-encompassing VMware Communities Space now includes VMUG and more!

Lots of great Vendors giving out great information on their products, and solutions and cant forget, SWAG!! There was vendors giving out light sabers to t-shirts, and so many stickers! Its a great time to collaborate with friends and vendors and get to learn about their products that they are offering that works along with VMware Cloud Foundation!

VMware Communities (vExpert & VMUG)

I enjoyed spending time at the VMware Community Booth, where Corey Romero – Senior Manager of vExpert Community, we talked about many exciting things, from vExpert and the future projects, collaboration with team members, spending quality time with an amazing individual that cares for his vExpert Team, without Corey the community wouldnt be the same, thank you to all you do!

Day 2

The General Session

In the morning it was all about the main stage! Where everyone got together for an innovative general session where attendees heard about cutting-edge developments in private cloud, AI, app delivery, and edge computing. Broadcom leaders, VMware experts, and innovative customers provided real-world insights on optimizing, scaling, and securing enterprise workloads. Check out my other blog post about the General Session here!

The rest of the day 2, was filled with countless hours or sessions and events and networking with fellow vExperts and Broadcom leadership, got invited to a Broadcom Leadership Party where I got to meet and talk to Hock Tan! It was a great time where he answered our questions and as well had fun and made us laugh!

Meeting Hock Tan

Day 3

The Party!

Another long day is over and a successful day! There have been many outstanding sessions around 80 of them, 16 VMware {code} Theater sessions, 27 Meet The Expert Roundtables, 23 Community Quick Talks, and 19 ​​Hands-on Labs Expert-led Workshops. Tons of great knowledge being shared by the community. Networking with fellow team members within many different industries and being able to share knowledge and experiences. Also cant forget about The Party! with a DJ playing music and then live band Jimmy Eat World!

The Party! First there was a DJ that played outstanding music, then around 9pm Jimmy Eat World came up on stage and started off playing great music!

The Party was located indoors in the Main Stage Hall at The Venetian, it was awesome to have it indoors this year, there was a great turn out of Explorer’s that showed up, tons of great food, drinks, and networking going on!

Overall, Day 3 of VMware Explore 2024 delivered valuable insights and practical takeaways for attendees. The conference continues to be a great platform for learning, connecting, and staying updated with the latest trends and advancements in virtualization and cloud computing. In the end The Party was a blast, great DJ and awesome live music – Jimmy Eat World

Day 4

A Farewell for now…

VMware Explore 2024 has come to a close, and it was an incredible week filled with new insights, connections, and innovations. Over the past five days, we’ve had the opportunity to dive into the latest developments in cloud infrastructure, digital transformation, and new product releases.

The event featured thought-provoking general session, breakout sessions, and hands-on labs, offering attendees a well-rounded experience. We heard from industry leaders, got to explore cutting-edge technologies, and connected with like-minded individuals passionate about driving digital change.

One of the standout moments was the announcement of VMware’s new suite of products, VMware Cloud Foundation 9, which is designed to empower organizations in their digital transformation journey with a on premise private cloud. With enhanced security features, improved scalability, and simplified management, these tools will enable businesses to build more efficient and resilient cloud infrastructures.

Another high point was the opportunity to network with peers. The event brought together a diverse range of professionals, allowing for the exchange of ideas, best practices, and even future collaborations. It was inspiring to see the dedication and expertise represented in the room.

As we bid farewell to VMware Explore 2024, we feel grateful for the knowledge shared and connections made. The event has equipped us with fresh perspectives and practical insights that we will carry forward in our journey towards digital excellence.

Until next year, VMware Explore 2025!

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VMware Cloud Foundation

VMware Cloud Foundation 5.2!

by Tommy Grot
written by Tommy Grot 5 minutes read

The ever-evolving landscape of cloud infrastructure demands constant innovation and adaptability from technology solutions. VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 5.2 arrives with a plethora of groundbreaking features and add-ons, empowering you to build, deploy, and manage modern infrastructure with unmatched efficiency and agility.

This release is a significant milestone in the journey of VCF, introducing cutting-edge advancements across AI-powered automation, data processing, and storage management. From intelligent workload placement to dynamic performance optimization and automated data handling, VCF 5.2 empowers you to:

  • Maximize resource utilization: Leverage AI-powered insights to allocate workloads optimally across the cluster, ensuring efficient resource allocation and improved performance.
  • Boost data agility: Embrace intelligent data management with automated data processing units (DPUs), enabling high-performance data analytics and persistent data storage.
  • Simplify storage management: Introduce new vSAN Extended Storage Architecture (ESA) policies for automated data tiering and disaster recovery, ensuring optimal storage utilization and enhanced resilience.
  • And that’s just the tip of the iceberg!
VCF 5.2 comes packed with numerous other exciting features and enhancements, including:
  • Enhanced networking capabilities: Improved routing performance and stability with support for BGP routing in private networks.
  • Expanded automation: Streamline workflows with additional self-service capabilities for users and automated infrastructure provisioning.
  • Improved security: Strengthen data protection with advanced encryption options and role-based access controls. Utilizing Identity Federation Support with Microsoft Entra ID and also 3rd party authentication services or well known AD/LDAP or okta and ADFS.
  • Import an existing vSphere Infrastructure into your VMware Cloud Foundation infrastructure.

Here in this blog post we will go over many different topics but we will go in depth in future blog posts on other areas of VCF 5.2!

With the new VCF 5.2 you can import a standalone vSphere environment which it can be a new or existing one and let you manage its lifecycle through one single pane window through the SDDC Manager.

Flexible Deployments

Now you can deploy VCF in many different use cases, from a data center in the edge or even a air-gapped environment. Now in VCF 5.2 you have the flexibility to deploy as your heart desires!

Lifecycle Management

Now this is an exciting addition to VCF 5.2! We can upgrade SDDC Manager independently where before it was apart of the management workload domain, this provides a lot of flexibility where before some customers needed to stay on a specific version before it could get upgraded, it had to go through thorough tests.

Software Bill of Materials

Patch Individual Components using SDDC Manager

I made a great blog post on how to utilize the SDDC Manager Async Patch tool, well before it was a CLI driven automation utility where you would have to stage your commands and prepare for upgrading the indiviual products outside the Software Bill of Materials

The VMware SDDC Manager async patch tool allows you to upgrade individual products outside of the standard VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) baseline. This tool can be used to upgrade products such as vCenter, NSX, and ESXi to newer versions without affecting the overall VCF deployment.

From My Blog Post Here

Offline Bundle Repo

Now, this is a improvement for Air-Gapped environments or secured environments where there is no internet connection, with hosting your own repo for all the upgrades for VCF this will be a game-changer where it will save time and re-downloading each bundle or all the bundles.

vSphere 8 u3 Update

Key highlights of this release include:

  • Ability to manage Kubernetes clusters independent of vSphere, offering greater flexibility and autonomy for hybrid and multi-cloud deployments.
  • Simplified management of TKG clusters through the vSphere web client, streamlining workflows and reducing administrative overhead.
  • Automated scaling of virtual machines (VMs) based on workload demands, ensuring optimal resource utilization and cost efficiency.
  • Support for scale-up and scale-down of CPU, memory, and vCPUs simultaneously, enabling efficient adaptation to dynamic workloads.

vSAN Stretched Cluster Support:

  • Expansion of vSAN to support stretched clusters across geographically dispersed locations.
  • Continuous data consistency and disaster recovery across sites, ensuring high availability and business continuity.
  • VM Backup and Restore:
  • Comprehensive snapshot-based backup of TKGs, enabling easy restoration and disaster recovery.

Keeping your vSphere Updated

This ensures the following:

  • Optimal infrastructure performance and efficiency.
  • Enhanced security and compliance.
  • Improved management and automation capabilities.
  • Support for modern workloads.
  • Access to continuous innovation and support.

But also, now we can patch vSphere environment much faster and without taking too many services down and causing unhappy customers. So, now with the new upgrade process the host enters a partial maintained mode where the host has existing workloads operating on it but no new workloads will migrate nor any new VMs or containers will get deployed on it till it gets upgraded.

Hardware Support

Protecting crucial workloads utilizing DPUs, (Data Processing Units) this provides high availability with active and standby states for workloads where if there is any outage that could occur the operations switch over to the standby DPU. Which this is a really neat addon for mission critical workloads that rely on DPUs!

Also even taking off the load from the primary DPU and being able to provide additional bandwidth by utilizing DPUs to provide double the networking throughput and keeping workloads always on.

Also, with Intel’s AI/ML Workloads, the Intel CPU Max Series is an whole new type of CPU where they have high bandwidth memory on the chip to accelerate AI/ML workloads by ensuring advanced security and reducing bottlenecks during high demands.

vSphere with Different Types of GPU Workloads

Now with this release, customers have the opportunity now to use different types of workloads on a single GPU, where it could be Artificial Intelligence or Machine Learning or even like utilizing graphics or VDI. This will help the GPU resources be shared among different deployments as well allowing customers to have the flexibility as they choose.

Security & Compliance

  • More Choices in Identity Management

TLS Ciphers allowing quicker implementation

STIG and PCI Compliance with easy to use hardening guides

VMware Cloud Foundation 5.2 is a groundbreaking advancement in your own private or hybrid cloud infrastructure management, offering a comprehensive suite of features and enhancements to empower you to build, deploy, and manage modern infrastructure with unparalleled efficiency and agility.

With intelligent automation, enhanced security, and innovative storage capabilities, VCF 5.2 provides a foundation for building resilient, adaptable, and efficient cloud-native environments.

Stay tuned for further blog posts where we’ll delve deeper into each of these features and explore how they can transform your infrastructure management practices!

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Events

Exciting New Sessions at VMware Explore 2024!

by Tommy Grot
written by Tommy Grot 4 minutes read

The VMware Explore 2024 content library is now live! Get ready for a week of insightful sessions, thought-provoking discussions, and innovative showcases from industry leaders and VMware experts. 💡

Beyond the insightful keynotes and thought-provoking discussions, VMware Explore 2024 offers an unparalleled opportunity to get your hands dirty with the latest technologies and deepen your knowledge in various domains.

Here’s what awaits you in the hands-on labs:

  • Practical workshops: Master new skills in areas like Kubernetes, security, networking, and more.
  • Solution-focused labs: Solve real-world challenges with hands-on guidance from VMware experts.
  • Dedicated lab environments: Ensure a focused and productive learning experience with curated lab settings.

Make sure to stop by the Hands On Labs during a break or downtime where you can test, learn and enjoy tinkering with HOL Environments that are provided to you during the event!

General sessions will cover a diverse range of topics:

  • Industry trends: Explore the future of technology across sectors like healthcare, finance, and sustainability.
  • Product updates: Get the latest news and insights on new products. Many exciting new advancements in private cloud, AI, app delivery and the edge.
  • Customer success stories: Learn how organizations are leveraging VMware solutions to achieve business outcomes.

Keynotes will inspire and challenge you:

  • Visionary leaders: Gain valuable perspectives from industry leaders who will share their insights on the most pressing challenges and opportunities in technology.
  • Inspiring talks: Prepare to be captivated by thought-provoking discussions covering a wide range of topics, from digital transformation to sustainability.

Session Recommendations!

Link to Session Accelerate Your Journey To Private Cloud With VMware Cloud Foundation [VCFP1362LV]

In this breakout session, William Lam and Karia Parb will talk about an exiting journey to being utilizing and modernizing your data center environments using VMware Cloud Foundation. How VCF can improve your business operations and systems! I have attended previous sessions by William Lam and they were outstanding!

Link to Session 4 Ways to Enhance the Network Experience Across Hybrid and Multi-Cloud [AODB1894LV]

This session will go into deep dive on how to enhance your Networking experience using VCF and NSX, and being able to migrate workloads from hybrid cloud to on prem, this is a great sessions for many organizations to attend due to the complexities that are involved with the unknowns of the Internet, where how things need to be configured properly to seamlessly scale and migrate workloads between the on-prem datacenter and hybrid cloud. So make sure to book this session!

Link to Session Shaping the Future of Cloud and AI Innovation [GEN2495LV]

Are you ready to shape your future of Cloud and Artificial Intelligence? Well this session is going to be a kick! With all the new advancements from Private AI on VCF and how organizations can improve and scale and operate their enterprise workloads by implementing and designing a solid VMware Cloud Foundation environment, this general session will be an awesome outlook on how AI, applications and data center computing will help the industry!

Link to Session AI Without GPUs: Using Your Existing CPU Resources To Run AI Workloads [INVB2189LV]

This is a session I want to attend my self, even for my home lab where I have a large environment to do lots of CPU workloads but when it comes to having GPUs they get very costly, so being able to run AI/ML workloads on CPU resources will be a game changer for many organizations as well, due to cost savings and also ease of use whereas GPUs require more infrastructure and also the cooling. This will be a popular session I can already see it filling up!

Don’t miss the chance to:

  • Network with fellow attendees and industry professionals.
  • Discover new ideas and innovations.
  • Gain practical skills and knowledge to enhance your career.

Here’s what you need to know:

  • Register for sessions soon: Secure your spot for the sessions you’re most interested in and receive notifications when they go live.
  • Bookmark your sessions using the “♡” Icon so when the catalog opens for session registration then you will be notified.

Don’t forget to:

  • Follow VMware Explore on social media for updates, highlights, and exclusive content. ✨
  • Join the #VMwareExplore hashtag conversation to connect with other attendees and share your thoughts. 💬
  • Ready to explore the future of technology? Head over to the VMware Explore 2024 content library and start planning your viewing experience!
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Events

VMware Explore 2024

by Tommy Grot
written by Tommy Grot 4 minutes read

VMware Explore Las Vegas 2024

Get ready to experience the ultimate tech extravaganza at VMware Explore 2024 in Las Vegas! August 26th – 29th. This year’s event promises to be bigger and better than ever as we dive into the world of multi cloud computing, virtualization, containerization and many more technologies. Join us as we embark on a journey through the latest innovations in technology and network with industry experts and like-minded individuals. Get ready to expand your knowledge, cultivate new ideas, and collaborate with friends old and new. Whether you’re a seasoned pro or just beginning your tech journey, VMware Explore 2024 is the place to be. So mark your calendars, pack your bags, and get ready for an unforgettable experience in the heart of Sin City. Let’s explore the future together!

Early-Bird Registration Is Open

Below are few links – VMware Explore Registration, also go and follow VMware Explore LinkedIn Channel

What Am I Looking Forward to VMware Explore 2024 –

This event promises to be a one-of-a-kind experience, featuring insightful keynotes, interactive workshops, and networking opportunities with industry experts. As well getting the chance expand on my knowledge from others within the community, as well as meeting creators of many products, last year I got to meet with Stephen Evanchik – VMware Cloud Director creator, as well as the VMware Cloud Team, I enjoyed showcasing my work project and skills I have acquired and collaborated with others.

VMware Explore 2023 Recap –

More Info About My VMware Explore 2023 – Here

VMware Explore 2023 was an absolute blast, I got invited to the Presidents Dinner and got to meet the CEO Raghu and explore and find friends and colleges. Even spending time with the VMware Education Team was a blast!

How VMware Explore Has Benefited My Career?

  • VMware Explore has been instrumental in advancing my career by providing me with the knowledge needed to excel in the field of virtualization.

  • The hands-on labs offered by VMware Explore have allowed me to gain practical experience and a deeper understanding of VMware products.

  • Additionally, earning a VMware certification through Explore has not only validated my skills but has also opened up new opportunities for career advancement.

  • Networking with professionals in the industry through VMware Explore has been invaluable in building connections and receiving mentorship from experts in the field.

  • VMware Explore has been a crucial stepping stone in my career development, equipping me with the tools and resources necessary to thrive in the ever-evolving world of virtualization technology.

Top Reasons to Attend VMware Explore 2024
  • Uncomplicate your cloud – Leverage a large ecosystem that is powered by the community and partners to accelerate you VMware Cloud journey.
  • Learn directly from the source – Meet the Creators of certain VMware Products, ask questions to the Expert Bar, where they can help you with all your IT needs and support.
  • Accelerate your next move – Check out the VMware Education Exam Center, get certified with discounts on many VMware Exams.
  • Meet friends and influence people – Hang out with other colleges, experts and even many certifieds VMware experts, gain knowledge and experience from other team members and share stories!

VMware Explore Benefits

(All Images are from VMware Explore 2023 Las Vegas!)

The Hub

The Hub welcomes all attendees to relax, recharge, network and learn. Lots of awesome booths to check out along with the vExpert Communities, and VMware Rewards and VMware CODE! Make sure to make a stop at the vExpert Booth and Learn what it takes and how to become a vExpert and join the awesome VMware vExpert Family!

Certification Exams

This is an awesome offer to not take advantage of! because your full event pass registration allows you to purchase VMware Certified Professional (VCP) and VMware Certified Advanced Professional (VCAP) certification exam vouchers at a 50 percent discount (exams must be taken onsite during Explore Las Vegas).

Hands-on Labs

The Hands-on Labs Command Center – This is a really neat tool that has been developed for HOL utilizing VMware Aria Operations. This allows everyone to see how important health and monitoring of any environment is critical to ensure a optimized and smooth HOL Experience. Also there are expert-led workshops, interactive labs, and production-quality VMware Test-drive demos, you’ll get hands-on experience with the full VMware by Broadcom portfolio of products. Subject matter experts will be available to answer questions and deep dive into innovative solutions.

The Expo

Visit The Expo to explore the latest products and solutions from sponsors and exhibitors. While there, be sure to head to the VMware by Broadcom booth where you can learn more about the latest offerings, attend our in-booth theater presentations, and get your questions answered by product specialists.

VMware Explore YouTube Channel
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NetworkingVMware vSAN

VMware vSAN and Remote Direct Memory Access

by Tommy Grot
written by Tommy Grot 3 minutes read

Welcome to the first blog post of 2024! We are thrilled to kick off the year with a topic that is bound to ignite your vSAN Cluster. Get ready to dive into the world of RDMA (Remote Direct Memory Access) and vSAN (Virtual Storage Area Network) implementation. These cutting-edge technologies are revolutionizing the way data is transferred and stored, promising lightning-fast speeds and unparalleled efficiency. Whether you are a tech enthusiast, a system administrator, or simply someone intrigued by the latest advancements in the tech universe, this blog post will unravel the mysteries of RDMA and vSAN, leaving you with a newfound understanding and enthusiasm for these game-changing innovations. So, buckle up and lets get ready!

Lets configured your ESXi Host to be ready for RDMA for vSAN

First thing you will want your Core Networking Switches to have Data Center bridging configured for all interfaces that are connected to your vSAN Cluster. Link to Arista

Example Syntax From my Arista DCS-7050QX-32S-F
   description ESX01-VDS01-1-VMNIC4
   mtu 9214
   dcbx mode ieee
   speed forced 40gfull
   switchport mode trunk
   priority-flow-control on
   priority-flow-control priority 3 no-drop

Sample Config

So, now that the networking is prepared next we will need to SSH into each ESXi Host and you will need configure the settings below:

Example of vSAN Cluster Health regarding RDMA not configured

While in SSH – you will need to configured each host with the parameters’ below in each code block

dcbx int Set DCBX operational mode
Values : 0 – Disabled, 1 – Enabled Hardware Mode, 2 – Enabled Software Mode, 3 – If Hardware Mode is supported Enable Hardware Mode, else Enable Software

esxcli system module parameters set -m nmlx5_core -p dcbx=3

pfctx int 0x08 Priority based Flow Control policy on TX.
Values : 0-255
It’s 8 bits bit mask, each bit indicates priority [0-7]. Bit value:
1 – generate pause frames according to the RX buffer threshold on the specified priority.
0 – never generate pause frames on the specified priority.
Notes: Must be equal to pfcrx.
Default: 0

pfcrx int 0x08 Priority based Flow Control policy on RX.
Values : 0-255
It’s 8 bits bit mask, each bit indicates priority [0-7]. Bit value:
1 – respect incoming pause frames on the specified priority.
0 – ignore incoming pause frames on the specified priority.
Notes: Must be equal to pfctx.
Default: 0

trust_state int Port policy to calculate the switch priority and packet color based on incoming packet
Values : 1 – TRUST_PCP, 2 – TRUST_DSCP
Default: 1

esxcli system module parameters set -m nmlx5_core -p "pfctx=0x08 pfcrx=0x08 trust_state=2 max_vfs=0"

pcp_force int PCP value to force on outgoing RoCE traffic.
Cannot be active when dscp_to_pcp is enabled.
Values : -1 – Disabled, 0-7 – PCP value to force
Default: -1

dscp_force int DSCP value to force on outgoing RoCE traffic.

Values : -1 – Disabled, 0-63 – DSCP value to force
Default: -1

esxcli system module parameters set -m nmlx5_rdma -p "pcp_force=-1 dscp_force=26"

Now, that your have configured all the ESXi hosts, you will need to repeat the syntax above to each host you have. Once updated you will need to put each host in maintenance mode and reboot each host.

Once all ESXi hosts are configured and rebooted, vSAN Health should report back RDMA Configuration Healthy.

Below are some Network Backbone tests over RDMA!

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CloudNetworkingVMware NSX

Deploying VMware NSX Advanced Load Balancer

by Tommy Grot
written by Tommy Grot 2 minutes read

Today’s topic is on VMware NSX Advanced Load Balancer (AVI). We will walk through the steps of deploying a NSX ALB overlayed on top of your NSX Environment.

Features

  • Multi-Cloud Consistency – Simplify administration with centralized policies and operational consistency
  • Pervasive Analytics – Gain unprecedented insights with application performance monitoring and security
  • Full Lifecycle Automation – Free teams from manual tasks with application delivery automation
  • Future Proof – Extend application services seamlessly to cloud-native and containerized applications

More information at VMware’s site here

What You Will Need:

  • A Configured and running NSX Environment
  • NSX ALB Controller OVA (controller-22.1.3-9096.ova)
  • Supported Avi controller versions: 20.1.7, 21.1.2 or later versions
  • Obtain IP addresses needed to install an appliance:
    • Virtual IP of NSX Advanced Load Balancer appliance cluster
    • Management IP address
    • Management gateway IP address
    • DNS server IP address
  • Cluster VIP and all controllers management network must be in same subnet.

Lets start with deploying controller OVF

I like to keep neat and consistent names the following names I utilized:

Virtual Machine Names:
  • nsx-alb-01
  • nsx-alb-02
  • nsx-alb-03

You need total of 3 Controllers deployed to create a High Available NSX ALB.

Click the Ignore All, or you will get this error as show below

Select your datastore ->

Click Next ->

My DNS Records:

  • nsx-alb-01.virtualbytes.io
  • nsx-alb-02.virtualbytes.io
  • nsx-alb-03.virtualbytes.io

We are deploying!

Access your first appliance via its FQDN that you have set in the steps above.

Create your password for local admin account

Create your passphrase, and your DNS resolvers, and DNS Search Domains.

Skip SMTP if not needed, but if you need a mail server please fill out your required SMTP IP and Port

  • Service Engines are managed within the tenant context, not shared across tenants to enable the Tenant Context Mode.
  • Service Engines are managed within the provider context, shared across tenants to enable the Provider Context Mode.

That is it for the initial deployment, next we will add our other 2 additional NSX ALB nodes for HA setup.

Go to Administration -> Controller -> Nodes

Click Edit ->

For your 2 additional NSX ALB nodes you will need to provide an IP Address and hostname and password.

Sample of what it should look like for all 3 ALB appliances

A simple topology of what we have deployed.

That is it! from now on you can configure for what use case you will NSX-ALB for. A next blog post will go through how to step up a NSX-T Cloud.

Licensing Flavors – If you click on the little cog icon next to the Licensing. You will see different tiers.

Different License Tiers that are apart of NSX-ALB Licensing model.

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Cloud

Upgrading VMware Cloud Director to 10.x Versions

by Tommy Grot
written by Tommy Grot 4 minutes read

This walkthrough is valid for VMware Cloud Director 10.6.x Upgrade!

What’s New

VMware Cloud Director version 10.4.1.1 release provides bug fixes, updates the VMware Cloud Director appliance base OS and the VMware Cloud Director open-source components.

Resolved Issues

  • VMware Cloud Director operations, such as powering a VM on and off takes longer time to complete after upgrading to VMware Cloud Director 10.4.1After upgrading to VMware Cloud Director 10.4.1, VMware Cloud Director operations, such as powering a VM on or off takes longer time to complete. The task displays a Starting virtual machine status and nothing happens.The jms-expired-messages.logs log file displays an error.RELIABLE:LargeServerMessage & expiration=
  • During an upgrade from VMware Cloud Director 10.4 to version 10.4.1, upgrading the standby cell fails with a Failure: Error while running post-install scripts error messageWhen upgrading the VMware Cloud Director appliance by using an update package from version 10.4 to version 10.4.1, the upgrade of the standby cell fails with an error message.Failure: Error while running post-install scriptsThe update-postgres-db.log log file displays an error.> INFO: connecting to source node> DETAIL: connection string is: host=primary node ip user=repmgr> ERROR: connection to database failed> DETAIL:> connection to server at “primary node ip”, port 5432 failed: could not initiate GSSAPI security context: Unspecified GSS failure. Minor >> code may provide more information: No Kerberos credentials available (default cache: FILE:/tmp/krb5cc_1002)> connection to server at “primary node ip”, port 5432 failed: timeout expired
More Fixes and Known Issues here

More Information about VMware Cloud Director 10.4.1

VMware Cloud Director 10.4.1 introduces several new concepts that facilitate creating, deploying, running, and managing extensions. Solution Add-Ons are an evolution of VMware Cloud Director extensions that are built, implemented, packaged, deployed, instantiated, and managed following a new extensibility framework. Solution Add-Ons contain custom functionality or services and can be built and packaged by a cloud provider or by an independent software vendor. VMware also develops and publishes its own VMware Cloud Director Solution Add-Ons.

My Versions

  • VMware NSX 4.1.0.0.0.21332672
  • VMware vCSA 8.0.0 21216066
  • VMware Cloud Director 10.4.1

First. properly shutdown your VCD Cells if you have multiple cells. Once they are turned off take a snapshot of all of the appliances

Next we will want to upload the tar.gz file via WINSCP to the primary VCD Cell if you have a multi cell deployment you will need to upgrade the first cell, then second and third.

I have logged into the VCD appliance with root account

Then open up a Putty session to the VCD appliance login as root,

Then change directory to /tmp/ Once in the directory:

cd /tmp

Create a Directory within /tmp directory, with the command below:

mkdir local-update-package

Start to upload the VMware_Cloud_Director_10.4.1.9360-21373231_update.tar.gz file for the upgrade into /tmp/local-update-package via winscp

File has been successfully uploaded to the VCD appliance.

Next steps we will need to prepare the appliance for the upgrade:

We will need to move the VMware_Cloud_Director_10.4.1.9360-21373231_update.tar.gz from the /tmp directory to /tmp/local-update-package/

mv VMware_Cloud_Director_10.4.1.9360-21373231_update.tar.gz /tmp/local-update-package

Once in the local-update-package director, and you have your VMware_Cloud_Director_10.4.1.9360-21373231_update.tar.gz run the command below to extract the update package in the new directory we created in /tmp/local-update-package

tar -zxf VMware_Cloud_Director_10.4.1.9360-21373231_update.tar.gz

You can run the “ls” command and you shall see the VMware_Cloud_Director_10.4.1.9360-21373231_update.tar.gz file along with manifest and package-pool

After you have verified the local update directory then we will need to set the update repository.

vamicli update --repo file:///tmp/local-update-package

Check for update with this command after you have set the update package into the repository address

vamicli update --check

Now, we see that we have a upgrade that is staged and almost ready to be ran! But, we will need to shutdown the cell(s) with this command

/opt/vmware/vcloud-director/bin/cell-management-tool -u administrator cell --shutdown

Next is to take a backup of the database, log into VMware Cloud Director Appliance, https://<your-ip>:5480 , same port as vCSA VAMI.

Backup was successful! Now, time for the install

Apply the upgrade for VCD, the command below will run will install the update

vamicli update --install latest

Now, the next step is important, if you have any more VCD Cell appliances you will want to repeat first few steps and then just run the command below to upgrade the other appliances:

/opt/vmware/vcloud-director/bin/upgrade

Select Y to Proceed with the upgrade

After successful upgrade, you may reboot VCD appliance and test, and after successful tests remove your snapshot.

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Cloud

VMware Cloud Director – Customization & Branding w/ API

by Tommy Grot
written by Tommy Grot 3 minutes read

A in depth post on how to customize your VMware Cloud Director! If your organization has a specific theme and logo, well tonight’s post will guide you through the steps to get it all configured and looking all spiffy!

By default, installation Cloud Director offers two types of themes, the default white mode and dark mode. You can manage, create, and add your own themes to VCD. The steps we will be following through will be done system level so all Tenants and the Provider will see the updated VCD UI!

First connect to VCD Cell appliance via SSH –

Change Directory to

cd /opt/vmware/vcloud-director/bin

Run the Cell Management Tool

./cell-management-tool manage-config -n backend.branding.requireAuthForBranding -v false

Next we will utilize Postman to do the next few tasks

Access Token Authentications

You will want to get your Access Token and API Version, below I will explain on how to do that to get your API version

Get -> https://<Your-IP-Here>/api/versions

Authorization Tab

  • Basic Auth – Username: “administrator@system” & Password: <your password>

Headers Tab

  • Key: Accept Value: application/*;version=37.0

Below is the supported version I utilized, I did not used the beta version.

</VersionInfo>
<VersionInfo deprecated="false">
    <Version>37.0</Version>
    <LoginUrl>https://172.16.204.120/cloudapi/1.0.0/sessions</LoginUrl>
    <ProviderLoginUrl>https://172.16.204.120/cloudapi/1.0.0/sessions/provider</ProviderLoginUrl>
</VersionInfo>

POST API Sessions

Now we will create a POST within Postman.

POST https://172.16.204.120/api/sessions

Authorization Tab

  • Basic Auth – Username: “administrator@system” & Password: <your password>

NOTE -> Once you execute the POST, make sure you get a 200 OK status before proceeding futher.

Next you will want to save the token above as sampled in the image, you will need it for the Beare Token.

Headers

  • KEY: x-vcloud-authorization VALUE: e31a8bd0d1244282bed8b4b809ba9e1f
  • KEY: X-VMWARE-VCLOUD-ACCESS-TOKEN VALUE: <eyJ….>

Cloud Director Web Portal Customization

For this next section you will need to execute GET calls to get the current portal configuration with the above Bearer Token KEYS and VALUES

GET https://172.16.204.120/cloudapi/branding

Once you execute the call you will want to go to the Body section and you will see something like this, but a fresh installation of VCD – Portal Name will be ” VMware Cloud Director” and the theme name would be “Default” Which mine is set to Dark mode.

Sample Body Configuration

{
    "portalName": "Virtual Bytes Cloud",
    "portalColor": null,
    "selectedTheme": {
        "themeType": "BUILT_IN",
        "name": "Dark"
    },
    "customLinks": [
        {
            "name": "help",
            "menuItemType": "override",
            "url": null
        },
        {
            "name": "imprint",
            "menuItemType": "override",
            "url": null
        },
        {
            "name": "about",
            "menuItemType": "override",
            "url": null
        },
        {
            "name": "vmrc",
            "menuItemType": "override",
            "url": null
        }
    ]
}

    Then once you get your custom configuration ready you will want to do a PUT Call via Postman

Once you POST your Branding configuration, go back to Web UI of VCD and hit refresh! You should see something like below 🙂

Cloud Director Web Portal Logo Customization

Now. for our logo we will do another API call via Postman to PUT a png file for the system level logo.

Authorization Tab

  • Bearer Token from previous API call we did

Headers

  • KEY: Accept VALUE: application/*;version=37.0
  • KEY: x-vcloud-authorization VALUE: “e31a8bd0d1244282bed8b4b809ba9e1f” <- Put your value for the call not mine 🙂
  • KEY: X-VMWARE-VCLOUD-ACCESS-TOKEN VALUE: “eyJhbGciOiJSUzI…..” <- I shorted the Bearer Token

Go to Body – Change it to binary and find your logo.png file to upload and then hit Send.

Top right corner you will see the logo I uploaded to Cloud Director!

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