VMworld 2021 Top 10 session to watch

vmworld2021It is that time of the year again to start looking forward to VMworld 2021. Due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic VMworld 2021 will again be “fully virtual” again.

The upside to a virtual event is that you don’t need to walk across a big conference complex to get from one session to another. You can follow the conference from the luxury of you own chair and desk. Poor your own drink of choice, sit back and relax and take in all the information on VMware latest and greatest from your own home. Because VMworld 2021 will be fully virtual, like last year that will make it easier for people to attend since you don’t need to arrange travel (flight/hotel) to attend VMworld.

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VIBS Error vSphere ESXi upgrade

vmware_vSphere7_graphicRecently I was upgrading vSphere ESXi host from version 6.5.0 (7388607) to version 7.0.1. vCenter for this environment is upgraded to version 7.0.2.0000. at first I was trying to start the upgrade via VMware LifeCycle Manager but that resulted in an error indicating that the vCenter/LifeCycle Manager and the ESXi version where not working well together. In order to make progress I’ve accessed the server via it’s Integrated Lights Out (ILO) interface (HPE). Mounted the HPE ESXi image through ILO and booted the server.
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Fixing an interrupted NSX-T Manager upgrade

nsxtThe process for upgrading the NSX-T managers in an environment is a automated process that works through three managers and finishes the moment all the NSX-T managers are upgraded to the new desired version. Recently I was upgrading a NSX-T datacenter environment from version 3.1.0.0.017107177 to version 3.1.1.0.0.17483065 in my lab environment. The Edge nodes and Transport Nodes had already been upgraded successfully. While we where in the middle of upgrading the the NSX-T manager upgrade got interrupted and the NSX-T managers rebooted when the upgrade was not yet finished.
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Advanced Cross vCenter vMotion

vmware_vSphere7_graphicVMware released vSphere version 7.0 U1c – 17327586 in December 2020. Next to the cool new features that is included in this version (This blog is al about one of those cool features) another very important reason to download and install this version of vSphere is that it closes a major security issue with previous versions. You can find more info on this here.
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Upgrade NSX-T Edge Nodes

image-1VMware NSX-T delivers virtual networking in a software defined datacenter. In this article we are going to take a look at a VMware NSX-T environment that is ready for upgrading. In this blog we will upgrade the seven NSX-T Edge nodes. Let’s first take a look at what is the function of Edge nodes within the NSX-T architecture. An NSX Edge nodes are service appliances that run centralized network services that cannot be distributed to the hypervisors. An NSX Edge node can belong to one overlay transport zone and multiple vLan transport zones.
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Awarded vExpert 2021

vExpert 2021VMware vExpert is an honorary title VMware grants to outstanding advocates of the company’s products.

The vExpert title is held in high regards within the community due to the expertise of the selected vExperts. The vExpert honorees are sharing their knowledge towards enabling and empowering customers around the world with VMware’s software defined hybrid cloud technology adoption.

The vExpert award is for individuals, not for companies. The title last for one year. Employees of both customers and partners can receive the vExpert award. VMware started the vExpert program in 2009.

I am honored, happy and very proud that I am named vExpert 2021. I look forward to participate in the vExpert program and to continue to share knowledge about the VMware products and their different use cases.

vSAN Hybrid / All Flash

vsan-est-2013As a VMware partner we (my employer PQR) conducts VMware Health Checks. To perform a Health Check on a vSphere (or EUC, NSX-T) environment VMware provides a tool to check if the environment matches the VMware best practices. The tool to check if the environment matches the VMware best practices is called the VMware Health Analyzer. The VMware Health Analyzer is a Photon appliance that you install in the client environment. There is also a Windows installed version of the VMware Health Analyzer. My preference is to use the appliance version. I have the appliance also running on my environment, so if I collected data at a customer site I can load this information in my own appliance, this means that I don’t need a connection with the customer to create my Health Check report. Current version of the VMware Health Analyzer is: 5.5.2.0. Next to the VMware Health Analyzer the consultant checking the VMware environment will also use his own knowledge to check the environment and to interpret the data presented by the VMware Health Check Analyzer.
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vSphere Cluster Services (vCLS)

vmware_vSphere7_graphic_small1In vSphere 7.0 Update 1 (released in October 2020) a new feature was released called vSphere Cluster Services (vCLS). The purpose of vCLS is to ensure that cluster services, such as vSphere DRS and vSphere HA) are available to maintain the resources and health of the workload’s running the cluster. vCLS is independent of the vCenter Server availability.

vCLS uses agent virtual machines to maintain cluster services health. vCLS run in every cluster, even when cluster services like vSphere DRS and vSphere HA are not enabled.
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Configure vMotion in vSphere environment

Download Recently I’ve expanded my lab environment with a second vSphere host. One of the advantages of having two vSphere hosts is that you can move machine from on vSphere host to the other. If you perform this move while the machine is powered down you don’t and need any additional configuration. However, if you want to move a running machine from one vSphere host to the other without losing connectivity to this VM, you need vMotion. First let me explain what vMotion is.

vMotion in vSphere allows a running virtual machine to move between two different vSphere hosts. During vMotion memory of the VM is sent from the running VM to the new VM (the instance on another host that will become the running VM after the vMotion). The content of memory is changing all the time. vSphere uses a system where the content is sent to the other VM and then it will check what data is changed and send that, each time smaller blocks. At the last moment it will very briefly ‘freeze’ the existing VM, transfer the last changes in the memory content and then start the new VM and remove the old one. This process will minimize the time during which the VM is suspended.

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Managing vSphere with PowerCLI (creating Tags)

DownloadVMware vSphere PowerCLI is a command line tool for automating vSphere and vCloud management.

VMware PowerCLI is a very powerful command-line tool that lets you automate close to all aspects of a vSphere management. This includes among others: network, storage, guest OS.

PowerCLI is distributed as PowerShell modules, and includes over 500 PowerShell cmdlets.

The first version of PowerShell was released in November 2006 for Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Vista. We have come a long way since then. PowerShell is an important part of today’s IT landscape. By using PowerShell you can manage systems from different vendors in a unified way. I find myself using PowerShell almost every day in my work.

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