Dispatches¶

Announcing the Packer Plugin for VMware vSphere v2.1.0

I'm incredibly excited to announce the v2.1.0 release of vmware/packer-plugin-vsphere.

Below are the highlights for the release:

✨ Enhancements

• Added support for datastore clusters (datastore_cluster) for virtual machine builds and post-processing.
• Added datasource (vsphere-virtualmachine)for querying virtual machine information, enabling vsphere-clone to select a template.
• Added an override (bool) option to the vsphere-template post-processor, allowing the overwrite of an existing template if set to true.
• Refactored tools_sync_time to ensure more flexible and accurate time synchronization settings for virtual machines.

🐛 Bug Fixes

• Addressed issue removing CD-ROM devices from a virtual machine to ensure a deterministic order of removal.
• Addressed issue where hardware configuration wasn't always applied to virtual machines, ensuring consistent hardware settings.
• Addressed issue where IPv6 address were being double-wrapped in brackets in SSH communicator causing connection failures.
• Addressed issue nested hardware virtualization settings to only apply when explicitly requested, preventing unintended configuration changes.
• Addressed issue in the vsphere-supervisor Jenkins template to address compatibility.
• Refactored support for specifying the firmware type when creating and configuring the virtual machines to ensure that the APCI layout for virtual hardware 20 or later with EFI (and EFI with Secure Boot) have the correct APCI motherboard layout.

Using the VMware Cloud Foundation Async Patch Tool with PowerShell

The VMware Cloud Foundation Async Patch Tool is a command-line tool that enables you to perform asynchronous patching on a VMware Cloud Foundation instance. This enable you to apply patches that are not part of a VMware Cloud Foundation release but are required to address a specific issue, such as a security vulnerability.

Recently, I was asked to assist a couple customers with automating the process of applying async patches to their VMware Cloud Foundation instance. The customers were already using PowerShell to automate other tasks, including using some of our open source PowerShell modules and wanted to continue using PowerShell to automate the async patching process if possible.

This article provides examples of using the Async Patch Tool with PowerShell. The examples are based on the following:

• VMware Cloud Foundation with vSAN Ready Nodes (--SKU VCF).
• Downloading async patches to a jump host.
• Enabling and disabling async patches for a VMware Cloud Foundation instance.
• Enabling version upgrades for a VMware Cloud Foundation instance.
• Applying a hot patch for SDDC Manager.

Enabling Active Directory Federation Services for VMware Cloud Foundation

Ever wanted to have a true single sign-on experience with your on-premises VMware Cloud Foundation-based private cloud?

In the Summer of 2020 I spent quite a bit of my spare time digging in and learning adjacent product and cloud technologies. One of the products that landed in my view was Active Directory Federation Services with VMware products.

This blog post provides implementation guidance for integrating the following with Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) for Single Sign-On based on VMware Cloud Foundation 4.x and VMware Validated Design 6.x.

Reference Design for vRealize Network Insight on Cloud Foundation

In the Summer of 2020 I spent quite a bit of my spare time digging in and learning adjacent product and cloud technologies. One of the products that landed in my view was vRealize Network Insight. At the same time, my intent was to eventually include this in a VMware Validated Design / VMware Cloud Foundation general release. While the content that I authored during my exploration was not prioritized for an official release, the design was in an Early Access format for a Reference Design.

As a result, I'm happy to share the reference design that follows the same detailed design approach we use in the VMware Validated Design. The design is authored with the default design objective to support up to 10K virtual machines and 2M flows but can be scaled up, as needed. In addition, the design can support single-region and future expansion to multi-region (or multi-instance) Cloud Foundation.

Shutdown and Startup a vSphere with Kubernetes Workload Domain

In the last couple of days I've been doing some testing for a VMware Validated Design 6.0.x deployment which, of course, consumes VMware Cloud Foundation 4.0.x. By now, most have heard of vSphere 7 with Kubernetes and Tanzu Kubernetes Cluster which can be deployed in the design - but do you known how do you gracefully shutdown a workload domain and perform a graceful startup from a cold state?

After quite a bit of testing, I'm happy to share the process that I use to perform the processes.

vRealize Suite Account Expirations and Password Requirements

A quick post to share some handy content on the account expidations and password required across vRealize Suite 2019 based on some recent work I've done on the VMware Validated Design 6.0.x release. Enjoy!

Table: Users and Password Expirations

vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager 1.2 Ports and Protocols, Feature URLs, and Service Account Privileges

Behind the scenes in VMware R&D I have been working closely with the product management and engineering team for vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager to improve the experience and workflows.

Three questions that I'm often asked are:

1. What ports and protocols does vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager use for communications?
2. What URLs must be accessible by my organization to use some vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager Features (e.g., My VMware, Marketplace, Product Updates, and the in-product Compatibility Guide)?
3. What permissions are required for a custom role that can be used as a service account for vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager to vSphere communications?

Well, you're in luck. I can answer this where the documentation currently falls short.

VMware Validated Design for SDDC 4.1 Generally Available

As we prepare to head VMworld 2017 in both Las Vegas and Barcleona, we're excited to announce that today, we've released the VMware Validated Deisign for Software-Defined Data Center 4.1 - continuing VMware commitment to delivering standardized, proven, and robust data-center level designs for the Software-Defined Data Center.

The VMware Validated Designs provide our customers and partners comprehensive, prescriptive guidance to plan, build, and operate a Software-Defined Data Center. The designs are extensively tested to ensure all components and their specific versions are validated to work in unison, to scale to predetermined design objectives, and operate as our customers expect.

As with any release, let's jump in a cover what's new in this release.

VMware Validated Design for SDDC 4.0 Architecture Reference Poster

On March 2nd 2017 VMware released the VMware Validated Design for Software-Defined Data Center 4.0. A milestone release in our commitment to delivering our customers standardized, proven, and robust data-center level designs for the Software-Defined Data Center.

The excitement from our customers and partners for this release has been phenomenal – from the wave of product updates, new advanced day-two operations, streamlined online access, and the release of the Solution Enablement Toolkit for partners.

As we talk to customers and partners on a daily basis, there are many questions about the design. We wanted a way to provide a quick architecture reference as you get started with the design.

VMware Validated Design for SDDC 4.0 Generally Available

We're excited to announce that on March 2nd 2017 released the VMware Validated Design for Software-Defined Data Center 4.0. Another milestone in our commitment to delivering our customers standardized, proven, and robust data-center level designs for the Software-Defined Data Center.

The VMware Validated Designs provide our customers comprehensive, prescriptive guidance to plan, build, and operate a Software-Defined Data Center. The designs are extensively tested to ensure all components and their specific versions are validated to work in unison, to scale to predetermined design objectives, and operate as our customers expect.

Unlike reference architectures which may focus on an individual product or purpose without lifecycle management guidance, the VMware Validated Design for Software-Defined Data Center is a holistic approach to designing a full SSDC stack that’s applicable to a broad set of uses, with a commitment to ongoing upgrade guidance.