Free Training Resources
VMware is offering a complimentary 6-month Digital Learning subscription to the Premium edition of the VMware Learning zone.  You must register for this prior to November 6, 2020.  You can learn more about this free offering and register here.

Upcoming Events

Cincinnati VMUG/UserCON 2020
Date: August 27th

VMUG Virtual UserCon: A Virtual Environment like Never Before!
At the St. Louis and Cincinnati VMUG VIRTUAL UserCon, you will not only be surrounded by people who can make an impact on your day-to-day projects and future career, but in a virtual environment like never before. VMUG UserCons are created by VMware users for VMware users, so don’t miss this opportunity to talk with experts and peers in your area (yes in this virtual environment you can actually talk)!I

Register

VMworld 2020
Date: September 29th

VMworld has gone virtual for 2020!  Here are a few highlights about the event:

• Two days of “simu-live” content
• Highly produced, TV-like event
• Free registration begins on June 23 and will include General Session & Keynote talks, as well as breakout sessions

Check out VMworld.com to review the Content Catalog.  That is the list of breakout sessions that will be available.   On September 1st, the Schedule Builder becomes available and you can register for the breakout sessions you want to attend.

Technical Advisories

vCenter Server Internal Certificate Expiration – If your vCenter server (Appliance or Windows) was deployed as 6.5 Update 2 or later, the Security Token Service (STS) signing certificate may have a 2-year validity period.  Depending on when your vCenter was deployed, this may be approaching that expiration date.  There is no vCenter Alarm for this condition.  I highly recommend you take a few minutes and check your environment and proactively replace the certificate if needed.

• KB 79248: Simple ways to check the STS certificate expiration date
• KB 76719: Scripted/automated method to replace STS certificate

A friendly reminder about Adobe ending support for Flash
If you haven’t heard, Adobe has announced that they are ending support for Flash in December 2020.    If you have not yet upgraded your vCenter Server to 6.7 Update 3, you are using a version of vCenter which requires Adobe Flash for the vSphere Client.   Once Adobe makes the Flash Player End-Of-Life, browser manufactures are expected to pull the software from their browsers.  This will make managing your environment difficult.  The VMware vSphere Blog has an article about the vSphere Web client and your options.    The short version:

1. Upgrade your vCenter.  Your ESXi hosts don’t have to be at the same version.  There is a vCenter-ESXi interoperability chart that can help you determine if your hosts can be managed by newer vCenter versions.
2. If you cannot upgrade to a verison of vCenter that supports the HTML 5 client, you should proactively setup a computer with a browser that supports flash, test that it can manage vCenter and turn off all updates (browser, Adobe, OS) that might impact flash availability

Are you managing Android devices with Workspace ONE Unified Endpoint Management?  There are some changes regarding Workspace ONE UEM & Android Enterprise coming in November 2020 you will want to review.

Product Support Watch

The following products are nearing the End of General Support.  You can find the full list on the VMware Lifecycle Product Matrix.

Horizon View / Workspace ONE

• App Volumes 2.15 – 12/13/2020
• User Environment Manager 9.5 – 9/06/20
• User Environment Manager 9.6 – 12/13/20
• Unified Endpoint Management Console builds
  • 1902 – 9/14/20
  • 1903 – 10/22/20
  • 1904 – 10/24/20
  • 1905 (SAAS) – 10/24/20
• Identity Manager 19.03 – 11/16/2020
• Fusion 11 – 12/19/20
• Workstation 15 – 12/1920

NSX

• NSX-T 2.4 – 9/7/20
• Network Insight 4.0, 4.1, & 4.2 – 12/20/20

vRealize Suite

• Log Insight 4.8 – 10/2/20
• Lifecycle Manager 2.0- – 9/20/20
• vRealize Automation 7.4, 7.5 – 12/13/20
• vRealize Orchestrator 7.4, 7.5 – 12/13/20
• vRealize Business for Cloud 7.5 – 12/17/20

Notes From The Field

vSphere 7

• vSphere Central – a new central documentation repository for vSphere 7
• Security News you can use – watch an update on what is new with Security in vSphere 7
• If you want to get a look at vSphere 7 but don’t want to setup a test environment, take a look at the vSphere 7 Hands-On Labs
• What’s new with vSphere 7: Memory Reclamation

If you have vRealize Operations Manager (vROPs) and aren’t using it to right-size your VMs, you are missing out!  While you are taking a second look at vROPs, check out this list of vROPs Resources

The blog SpillTheNSXT belongs to a member of VMware’s Global Support Services for NSX-T shares a list of his favorite NSX-T ESXi commands.