VMware – AWS Partnership expanding!

byArron King 11.30.2017 VMware Cloud on AWS

The partnership between VMware and AWS is expanding!  You probably have already heard about VMware Cloud on AWS.  This is a service offering that lets you run VMware CloudVMware vSphere on Amazon bare metal.  You can run this as a stand-alone environment or make it an extension of your on-premises datacenter.

VMware and Amazon made some announcements this week that expanded upon that offering.

VMware Site Recovery

VMware Site Recovery is a Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) offering that can help accelerate and simplify your DR processes.  The major use cases for this are:

  • Protect your on-premises applications and data with failover to VMware Cloud on AWS
  • Provide that same protection for your VMware Cloud on AWS instance back to your on-premises infrastructure
  • Provide protection between AWS region’s or Availability zones for your VMware Cloud on AWS instance
  • Migration – if you are looking to take those on-premises workloads and move them to the cloud, this would be a very painless way to go
Your cloud in more places – AWS Region Expansion

VMW on AWS is now available in an additional region –  Initially this offering was only located  in the U.S. West region (Oregon).    It was announced on Wednesday that VMware Cloud on AWS is now also available in the U.S. East region (Northern Virginia).

There has certainly been a lot of interest in using AWS to host VMware infrastructure.  This expansion is very timely and will certainly help customers on the east cost of the U.S.!

 

 

 

vToolbelt – October 2017

byArron King 10.09.2017 vToolBelt

Whelp,  September flew right by me!    The VMware ecosphere (vSphere, vSAN, NSX, et all) is moving at an unbelievable pace.  VMworld provided a number of large announcements and a tremendous amount of knowledge!

In addition to the big announcements, there has been a lot of information to take in.  Let’s get to it…

Upcoming Ohio VMware Events

Cleveland VMUG (November 1) – Progressive Insurance is hosting the next VMUG in Cleveland.  They will be peeling back the covers on their operation and sharing their experiences. Get more information and register here.

Cincinnati VMUG UserCON (November 2) – Save the date and plan to be at the Sharonville Convention Center on November 2nd for the VMUG UserCon in Cincinnati.  Visit the VMUG.COM site to view the agenda and register. Continue reading “vToolbelt – October 2017”

vToolbelt – August 2017

byArron King 08.18.2017 vToolBelt

Well summer is starting to wind down.  Kids are headed back to school.  Mine is about to trek off to college (yikes!)  We are also just about a week away from VMworld 2017!    It is not too late to sign up!    There is going to be a lot of great virtualization learning and events going on.

Upcoming Ohio VMware Events

Cincinnati VMUG UserCON (November 2) – Created by VMware users for VMware users.  Plan to be at the UserCon in Cincinnati on November 2nd for one of the largest VMware events in the Midwest.  Visit the VMUG.COM site to view the agenda & register.

Continue reading “vToolbelt – August 2017”

Changes in VMware Tools Bundling for vSphere 6.5 Update 1

byArron King 07.29.2017 vSphere

One of the changes with vSphere 6.5 Update 1 is how VMware Tools are bundled.  This will primarily affect those who have older Windows systems, or are running operating systems outside of Windows or Linux.

Quick Review

Each build of ESXi contains ISO images for the current VMware tools installer for guest operating systems that run on top of it.    When an administrator tells the vSphere Client to update VMware Tools, the hypervisor mounts the appropriate ISO image from the ESXi filesystem to the virtual machine and presents it as a CD-Rom.  The guest OS can then be updated.

When you upgrade an ESXi host to a newer version or apply patches, those ISO images will be updated with the newest version of VMware Tools.

What Changes in 6.5 Update 1

vSphere 6.5 Update 1 only contains a subset of the VMware Tools ISO images for the supported guest operating systems.  These appear to support the latest variants in the Windows and Linux worlds.   Continue reading “Changes in VMware Tools Bundling for vSphere 6.5 Update 1”

VMware Updates – vSphere 6.5 Update 1 is now GA

byArron King 07.28.2017 vSphere

A number of VMware updates were released last night.  This includes the highly anticipated Update 1 for vSphere 6.5.  This will allow upgrades from vSphere 6.0 Update 3.

Lets get right to the details…

vSphere 6.5 Update 1

This is the much awaited release that will allow anyone running vSphere 6.0 Update 3 to get onto vSphere 6.5.  Some of the other new additions include:

  • The ability to use vSphere Update Manager to enable vSAN upgrades
  • Driver updates to a number of I/O devices

For the full list, read the release notes.

Continue reading “VMware Updates – vSphere 6.5 Update 1 is now GA”

vToolbelt – June/July 2017

byArron King 07.05.2017 vToolBelt

I don’t know about you; but my summer is flying by.  I blinked and missed June.  So this month, we’ll combine June & July.    I know you are as busy as I am, so  let’s get to it…

Upcoming Events

Central Ohio VMUG (July 11) – Note:  This event was moved up to avoid a date conflict with the Indy UserCON.  vRealize Operations presentation followed by optional movie.  Register Here.

Indianapolis VMUG UserCON (July 18) – For those able to travel, this UserCON in Indianapolis is pretty huge…   Visit the VMUG.COM site to view the agenda and register.

VMworld 2017

Registration for VMworld 2017 in the US is open now.       You can view pricing on the VMworld.com Registration Packages Page.

I have a feeling the Schedule Builder will be out soon.   Be sure to schedule your sessions as soon as possible to avoid getting shut out! Continue reading “vToolbelt – June/July 2017”

vToolBelt – May 2017

byArron King 05.15.2017 vToolBelt

Upcoming Events

Central Ohio VMUG UserCON (May 23) – Created by VMware users for VMware users.  Plan to be at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Columbus on May 23 for one of the largest VMware events in the Midwest.  Visit the VMUG.COM site to view the agenda & register.

Ohio SLED VMUG (June 13) – Save the date!  Planning is underway for the next SLED VMUG.  As soon as the agenda is finalized and the registration open we will get the information to you.

VMworld 2017

Registration for VMworld 2017 in the US is open now.   Early Bird pricing is in  effect now through June 12.  This provides discounted conference prices through June 12.    You can view pricing on the VMworld.com Registration Packages Page.

Continue reading “vToolBelt – May 2017”

vToolBelt – April 2017

byArron King 04.04.2017 vToolBelt

Lots of information to relay this month.  Let’s jump right in…

Breaking News

vCloud Air to be acquired by the OVH Group – VMware has recently announced that the vCloud Air business will be acquired by the OVH Group.  VMware will still continue to sell vCloud Air as an offering.

Windows Receive Side Scaling (RSS) issues for virtual machines running specific versions of VMware Tools – When using the VMXNET3 network adapter. RSS is disabled by default.  However if enabled on a Windows 2012 / R2 virtual machine with the certain versions of VMware Tools (9.10 – 10.1.5) there may be problems with dropped packets.  You can read more about this here.

VMware discontinues the 3rd party vSwitch program – VMware has announced that after vSphere 6.5 Update 1, the APIs which enable 3rd party vSwitch software to work will be discontinued.   A few examples of such software are:  Cisco Nexus 1000v, HPE 5900v and IBM DVS 5000v.  VMware recommends migrating from these switches to the vSphere Distributed Switch.  VMware is offering a free migration tool to assist.

vSphere Data Protection (VDP) will no longer be available after vSphere 6.5 – VMware has announced the End of Availability (EOA) for vSphere Data protection, and intends to focus on VMware vSphere Storage APIs.    If you currently use this product and have active SnS – it will be supported until the listed End of General Support Date. Continue reading “vToolBelt – April 2017”

Supported Windows 10 Builds for Horizon View

byArron King 03.20.2017 Horizon View Windows 10

VMware has documented the various Windows 10 Builds supported in Horizon View. Horizon ViewUnlike previous versions of Windows, Win10 has a continuous release cycle and the build numbers change often.  This can make life challenging for the Horizon View administrator.

I found the following two KB articles in the release notes for Horizon View 7.1. (see – it is good to read release notes every now and then!)

Supported versions of Windows 10 on Horizon View (KB 2149393)

Upgrade requirements for Windows 10 Operating Systems (KB 2148176)

 

Windows 10

vToolBelt – March 2017

byArron King 03.18.2017 vToolBelt

It has been a busy month in the VMware world so far!  Major updates to vSphere, and lots of news coming your way.  March 2017 Virtualization news for your vToolBelt

Staying up-to-date
How do you keep your skills current in our fast paced industry?  Have you ever tried listening to a Podcast?   I’ve used them for a while to stay current on a variety of topics (virtualization, networking, scripting, and even non-technical).  They have been very useful for me, and  I thought I would share my playlist for anyone interested.

Security Updates
A recent Apache Struts 2 vulnerability has required updates to a number of VMware products (vCenter, vROps, etc) – Read more here.

Workstation and Fusion both have patches for critical out-of-bounds memory issues (exploited by copy-paste and drag-and-drop functionality)

End-User Computing
Horizon 7.1 was released yesterday!  The highlights:

  • Instant clones can now proving RDSH servers, using NVIDIA GRID vGPUs, and span multiple VLANs
  • Windows 2016 is now supported for the View Components
  • RDSH Apps – customize icons, unauthenticated access to apps from WIndows/Linux clients

Continue reading “vToolBelt – March 2017”