As we all know the way we do things currently is very much different than a few months ago things will get back to some type of normality in time i guess however i cant see that being any time soon.

 

Business’s are still functioning and i guess people studying for exams give them that extra purpose they have sort of lost with current lockdowns. However there was always going to be an issue of getting to a testing centre regardless if they are open.

The great news VMware Certification have  announced that remote proctoring of its exams, delivered by Pearson VUE, will be available starting April 20, 2020. Remote proctoring allows you to take the exam from ANY secure location, and will be a permanent offering, regardless of the availability of in-person testing centers going forward. The cost per exam remains the same.

 

Few things to note :

With artificial intelligence combined with live monitoring, these new exam options offer the most up-to-date technology, including enhanced security features such as: face-matching technology, virtual ID verification, session monitoring, browser lockdown, recording, and more. In order to take an exam remotely, you will need to have a web cam, show ID, have your camera scan the room, and be in a secure, quiet location. This is still a proctored exam, with a live proctor. As with in-person events, you will not be able to use any materials to take the exam.

After a simple download and system check, you’ll be up and running quickly, so that you can easily get to what really matters: the test. When registering for your upcoming exam, simply select the remote proctoring option to choose this convenient new test-taking option.

All exams will be available for remote proctored delivery on April 20, 2020 except for the VCAP Deploy lab-based exams; with a different underlying delivery infrastructure, they take a bit more work and will be available soon.

 

I have a few friends who have take Microsoft exams this way so i am going to ask for a bit of feedback and add to this blog post, hopefully in the coming months i would have scheduled an exam and give my own take on the process.

 

I noticed while in a workshop that vROPS 8 install manage and configure course had gone GA. Very quickly I registered, just my luck – full however I was on the waiting list. A day later that email I had been waiting for “ there’s room at the inn, click now to be part of the party”.

I have not attended a vROPS training course since around 2013 / 2014 and was quite an earlier version of vROPS – lots has changed since.

I have a few customers who are going to vROPS 8 so i thought it would be pretty prudent to try and get myself more upto speed with the new features of vROPS 8

This was the first run on line of this new course, yes the odd hiccup around the labs not working correctly however nothing that caused any issues and this only happened on the Monday.

The only downside was there no actual timings for each of the lab tasks / sections so it was very much finger in the air and by overall consensus. This meant that Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday where very heavy and long days. Thursday and Friday where very light in comparison.

Trainer was great and i really enjoyed the weeks worth of training, yes it was a live on line course. Some people like these and some don’t and i can the plus and minus points around them.

Staying away on a course for the week 

Plus Points

• More detached from work
• Social Aspect ( beer and some food most nights )
• Networking while on the course whether this be coffee breaks or lunch
• More conversation / interactivity within the classroom
• All kit is there for you in an classroom so you will generally have 2 good size monitors

Negative Points

• Travel and being away from home
• Generally travel on a Sunday and wont get home till 10pm on a Friday
• Extra costs from hotels and expenses, this can mount up into a hefty sum for the week

Live Online

Plus Points

• No Travel, would hope you have either booked a meeting room in your place of work or your at home doing the training
• No travelling down the night before and no coming home at daft o’clock on a Friday night
• Zero Travel and Expense costs – this really can make a difference sometimes as to whether you are allowed to attend a course or not
• If your doing this from home it is really just a matter of getting up and going into your office or where you work at home
• Your own kit, you need a monitor as well as your laptop / desktop ( with monitor )

Negative Points

• The networking at coffee and lunch times are not there as everyone is remote; fair play to the instructor this week he would try and get some conversations going with people at coffee breaks.
• No social part of a night time
• You have to be very strict with email and detaching from work, turn email off, turn skype off etc and make sure you have some cover on your Out Of Office for the week.
• You need correct kit, defiantly need a second monitor, desk etc and a room thats quiet

So there you go it comes down to cost and personal preference, training is exactly the same as its normal trainers that would have if your attended a classroom event. Live on line has become a lot more popular and there certainly is a lot more dates available that classroom courses. So if your in a rush to get the training then Live On Line can really be of benefit.

I had a great week and got a great deal from the course, hard work starts now as you really need to go through the manual etc again. vROPS is a monster of a product and does take a bit of effort to get the most from it. Although vROPS 8 has certainly made a great deal of content available straight out the box which may well be enough for a lot of people.

 

Course details :

Unfortunately i had to pull out of VMworld Europe, i was working on Hands On Labs again….. Real shame but some personal issues this time meant i could not go.

Not to miss out, i got out of bed on the Tuesday got myself awake made the long walk to my office at home with a coffee to watch Tuesdays Keynote. I know not the same as siting in a massive hall with 13,000 people in – something i have done many a time as a customer….. Would not have done this anyway as an employee……. but would have been watching this somewhere.. As the keynote is coming to an end Ray comes on and just blows me away with a concept of running ESXi on a Raspberry PI……

I have 25 of the blighters in my office lol

You can watch the keynote replay here starting at 1:37:15.

If you then have a spare hour, i would advise you to watch the below breakout session which talks about IOT and the Raspberry PI…

On Tuesday, Chris Wolf and Daniel Beveridge had a breakout session at VMware Europe – CTO3509BE Edge: Automation, Analytics, and Real-Time Business and you watch the recording here.

In the past if you wanted to watch any of the sessions from VMworld you had to attend or hope someone uploaded something to youtube. This changed this year, you can now watch a good 90% of content using the on demand portal and go through the usual search criteria to get to the part you want. Whats even more fantastic you can also watch content starting from 2014……..

Just click on the below link which will take you off to the on demand library !!! Massive thumbs up for VMware in providing this feature

 

https://videos.vmworld.com/global/2018

 

 

Alas i have to pull out working with the hands on labs team at the last minute due to family illness, real shame however just like in previous years the power of the internet allowed me to watch the keynotes !!!.

 

Little summary of some of the topics discussed on Day 1 this year :

 

Workspace ONE:

Workspace ONE Intelligence Automation Connector

 

Workspace ONE Intelligence, a cloud-based service that provides insights and analytics with automated remediation capabilities across a digital workspace environment, can now be leveraged with third-party systems via the Workspace ONE Intelligence Automation Connector. Building on existing out-of-box connectors to Slack and ServiceNow, the connector provides a way for customers to connect automated actions and notifications created in Workspace ONE Intelligence with their existing systems such as service desk platforms.

 

Workspace ONE Sensors for macOS

 

Workspace ONE Sensors enable customers to query any system attribute from silicon to software (firmware, BIOS, peripherals, apps, etc.) for visibility and compliance enforcement. This capability was previously announced for Windows 10 and today VMware is announcing the general availability of Sensors for macOS.

 

Dell Provisioning for Workspace ONE now with Dell ProDeploy Client Suite

 

Dell Provisioning for VMware Workspace ONE is a service that preconfigures devices in the factory and ships them directly to end users for a ready-to-work experience with all Windows applications pre-loaded and available immediately to users on first boot. Today, VMware and Dell announced this service is now part of Dell ProDeploy Client Suite, which offers comprehensive deployment services that complement the provisioning service. This service can be purchased together with a new Workspace ONE license at a special combined rate as part of ProDeploy.

 

Workspace ONE Integration with Flexera AdminStudio for Easy Win32 App Publishing

 

Workspace ONE customers can now publish existing desktop applications directly from Flexera AdminStudio into their Workspace ONE catalog, avoiding costly and complex re-packaging of Win32 apps.

 

Workspace ONE Intelligence Identity Analytics

 

Enhancements to the Workspace ONE Intelligence service provide insights that improve visibility from the device to the network and allow IT to automate remediation. VMware today introduced Workspace ONE Intelligence Identity Analytics. Leveraging data from VMware Identity Manager, Workspace ONE Intelligence will provide identify analytics that help IT proactively mitigate risks.

 

Collaboration with Trust Network partner Carbon Black

 

In addition to Workspace ONE’s intrinsic security capabilities, customers can leverage existing investments in specialised security solutions as part of the growing Workspace ONE Trust Network. By connecting with third-party solutions through Workspace ONE Intelligence, organisations can see a full view of their devices and users, along with the threats that are targeting them.

With this in mind, today VMware unveiled a solution developed in collaboration with Trust Network partner Carbon Black. Now in preview the solution integrates Carbon Black, Workspace ONE Intelligence and VMware AppDefense to extend threat intelligence into the data center​, improve security posture, and automate the remediation of advanced threats​.

 

Okta Identity Cloud Integration

 

Also announced today are two new offerings that allow Workspace ONE customers to easily take advantage of Okta Identity Cloud. The partnership between Okta and VMware ties device trust to user identity via rich conditional access and provides employees with a central, more secure hub to access all apps, services, and devices.

 

VMware Workspace ONE Boxer

 

Workspace ONE Boxer now supports G-Suite corporate email, enabling organizations looking to leverage Google to manage email.

 

Workspace ONE Intelligence for Workspace ONE Secure Productivity Apps

 

VMware has built connectors to Workspace ONE Intelligence, so organizations can get insights into app engagement, crash rates, login times, user behavior, and more.

 

Support for Samsung DeX

 

Users can now access the Workspace ONE family of apps both on-the-go on their mobile device and connect their Galaxy S8, Note8, S9, Note9 and Tab S4 to a monitor, keyboard and mouse for a desktop computing experience with Samsung DeX. Employees can use their phone to open the VMware apps, use keyboard shortcuts, and drag and drop files all on the big screen.

 

VMware Horizon:

Instant Clones and App Volumes for Horizon 7 on VMware Cloud on AWS

 

VMware Cloud on AWS now supports Horizon 7 Instant Clones, App Volumes and User Environment Manager for just-in-time provisioning of stateless virtual desktops. Customers can spin up virtual desktops at an average rate of 1-2 seconds per desktop, and instant clones reduce storage consumed by up to 80 percent.

 

Consolidated Monitoring and Management

 

VMware is announcing integration of Horizon 7 with the Horizon Cloud Service. This integration provides unified visibility, health monitoring and helpdesk services for Horizon 7 deployments both on VMware Cloud on AWS and on premises infrastructure.

 

Automated Installation of Horizon 7 on VMware Cloud on AWS

 

VMware is previewing the ability to automate several steps of the Horizon 7 installation on VMware Cloud on AWS via the Horizon Cloud Service integration. This will greatly reduce the install time for Horizon 7 on VMC on AWS with streamlined UI for installation.

 

VMware Cloud Foundation 3.5

 

VMware Cloud Foundation 3.5 will deliver even greater flexibility as well as support an ever-growing set of workloads and cloud initiatives. VMware Cloud Foundation 3.5 will be validated with Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes on Dell EMC PowerEdge MX with additional integration for composing compute, storage and network on this kinetic infrastructure expected in future releases. This new release will bring composability features to VMware Cloud Foundation with HPE Synergy providing customers the benefits of a composable private cloud infrastructure with even more simplicity and flexibility in managing SDDC environments. Additionally, the new release will feature integration with VMware NSX-T enabling the automated deployment and lifecycle management of the network virtualization software as well as support for containerized applications and Kubernetes. VMware Cloud Foundation 3.5 will build on top of the extensive set of new capabilities and integrations delivered in VMware Cloud Foundation 3.0 including the choice of physical network switches (compared to previous versions that only supported a predefined list of supported switches).

 

VMware Cloud Foundation 3.5 will deliver:

 

Increased Flexibility:

• New – VMware will validate this latest release of VMware Cloud Foundation with Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes on Dell EMC PowerEdge MX, with increased integration expected over time. PowerEdge MX is Dell EMC’s kinetic infrastructure, which was designed for the software-defined data center, with customizable modules of compute, storage and networking. A proven, complete hyperconverged software solution, VMware Cloud Foundation offers ecosystem support for all VMware vSAN ReadyNodes.
• New – Support for composable features will be delivered through deep integration between VMware SDDC Manager and HPE Synergy Composer which is powered by HPE OneView. Customers can now dynamically compose physical resources using the VMware Cloud Foundation user interface to meet the needs of applications running on Workload Domains, thus increasing overall operational efficiency and automation.

Expanded Customer Use Cases:

• New – Integration with VMware NSX-T 2.3 – which simplifies the implementation of network and security tasks around Kubernetes – will enable support for containerized and cloud-native application use cases. This includes support for VMware PKS, the enterprise-grade Kubernetes solution.
• Previously, VMware Cloud Foundation 3.0 introduced support for multi-site use cases including the use of vSAN Stretched Clusters as well as the quick and easy movement of workloads across private and public clouds using NSX Hybrid Connect.

 

Latest VMware Product Innovations:

• New – VMware Cloud Foundation 3.5 will include support for recent VMware product releases including vSphere 6.7 Update 1, featuring simple and efficient management at scale, built-in security for applications, infrastructure, data and access as well as increased support for artificial intelligence (AI) and ML workloads, among other capabilities. Integration with VMware NSX-T 2.3 will enable support for container environments as well as a simplified workflow and a new search interface to allow administrators to search for objects and events within the NSX-T system and perform operations quickly. The new release will also feature VMware vRealize Automation 7.5 with broadened developer use case support through VMware PKS integration for Kubernetes cluster management. VMware vRealize Operations 7.0 will enable customers to adopt a ‘self-driving’ approach to monitoring and managing their data centers and cloud environments.

 

VMware Cloud Foundation on Dell EMC VxRail

 

At VMworld 2018 Europe, Dell EMC announced a preview of VMware Cloud Foundation on Dell EMC VxRail. The combination of Dell EMC VxRail and VMware Cloud Foundation is expected to offer customers the simplest way to build a private cloud with enterprise-rich features including multi-site and multi-cluster with fully automated deployment and lifecycle management of the entire stack.

 

vRealize Network Insight 4.0

 

Today, VMware also unveiled vRealize Network Insight 4.0. The latest release will be able to troubleshoot application connectivity in hybrid and multi-cloud environments. New functionality will enable customers to troubleshoot the path between a virtual machine (VM) on-premises to an EC2 instance in Amazon Web Services (AWS). VMware vRealize Network Insight 4.0 will also introduce comprehensive visibility across underlay and overlay networks including sflow support, new visibility for VMware NSX-T topology and events as well as support for Cisco ACI underlay and Cisco ASA firewall. Available as packaged software and as a VMware Cloud Service, VMware vRealize Network Insight helps customers to accelerate application security and networking across private, public and hybrid clouds. For VMware NSX customers, vRealize Network Insight helps drive successful outcomes no matter the stage of NSX adoption.

 

VMware Skyline Proactive Support for vRealize Operations

 

VMware Skyline, a proactive customer support technology, automates data collection to proactively review a customer’s VMware environment. The service provides prescriptive recommendations to improve overall environmental health and performance and includes VMware Skyline Log Assist—which eliminates the time-consuming process of manually uploading log files needed by Technical Support Engineers to assist customers with solving technical challenges. VMware Skyline proactive findings and recommendations will be available within vRealize Operations in early 2019.

 

 

VMware Validated Designs for Cloud Providers

 

Continued growth in VMware Cloud Verified partners, with 27 partners including more than a dozen partners across Europe now holding the VMware Cloud Verified designation, up from only five a year ago. VMware Cloud Verified partners have fully deployed VMware Cloud infrastructure and enable customers the performance and scale to support their application requirements.

 

New VMware Validated Designs (VVDs) for Cloud Providers are now available, enabling partners to deploy and operate VMware cloud infrastructure for a wide range of use cases and provide a fast, proven path to achieving VMware Cloud Verified status.

 

Previously announced solutions across the Cloud Provider Platform are now generally available, including VMware Cloud Provider Pod, VMware vCloud Director 9.5, VMware vCloud Availability for Cloud-to-Cloud DR, and VMware vCloud Usage Insight Service.

 

IBM Cloud Private Hosted on VMware vCenter Server

 

IBM Cloud Private Hosted can now be installed on VMware vCenter Server on IBM Cloud, which supports the management and orchestration of virtual machines and containers within a common security model and private network. With IBM Cloud Private Hosted on VMware vCenter Server, clients can containerize stateless components of a virtualized application while maintaining stateful components such as databases within the virtual machine. It also enables clients to modernize applications with the IBM Cloud Private catalogue of services including Blockchain, AI and event services, among many others.

 

In addition to IBM Cloud Private Hosted, IBM Cloud for VMware Solutions are now integrated with the IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service, which provides a fully managed Kubernetes environment, so customers can concentrate on application development.

 

To provide a unified networking solution that will bridge IBM Cloud Private and the IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service, IBM is expanding use of virtual cloud networking with the adoption of VMware NSX-T Data Center. As the foundation for a software-based network architecture that delivers services to applications and data wherever they are located, NSX-T provides consistent networking and security for all deployment models, including VM, containerized and bare metal. NSX-T has been validated by IBM as a supported network stack for IBM Cloud Private.

 

To support on-premises workloads, VMware vRealize Operations is now available on IBM Power Systems. With VMware vRealize Operations for Power, IT managers can monitor a heterogenous infrastructure from a single dashboard, allowing them to more efficiently allocate resources and free them from the time-consuming process of switching between multiple tools to manage a sprawling infrastructure.

 

IBM and VMware also announced that VMware will use Watson to help improve customer service across VMware support portals. Instead of static drop downs, now VMware customers can leverage Watson to quickly and easily communicate with the portal in natural language. Watson is designed to detect product type and version, analyze issues and match those issues with an expert engineer for faster resolution and a better customer support experience.

 

VMware to Acquire Heptio

 

VMware announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Heptio, a leader in the open Kubernetes ecosystem. Heptio’s products and expertise help organizations deploy and operationalize Kubernetes. Terms were not disclosed.

 

Founded in 2016 by Joe Beda and Craig McLuckie, two of the creators of Kubernetes, Heptio has applied its unique insight to a growing set of products, open source projects and contributions to upstream Kubernetes. This is complemented by Heptio’s work with organizations through training, support and professional services that speed integration of Kubernetes and related technologies into the fabric of enterprise IT. As a result, Heptio will be able to open new channels for VMware to further engage the open source community and harden upstream Kubernetes as well as support the cloud native needs of the largest enterprises in the world upon closing.

 

VMware and Pivotal have delivered PKS, the industry’s most comprehensive Kubernetes portfolio covering customer use cases for on-premises deployment and as a cloud service. The offerings enable organizations to operate Kubernetes and run their modern applications in a cloud-agnostic fashion. Upon completion of the acquisition, Heptio’s Kubernetes solution, expertise and community leadership will enhance the VMware portfolio and further accelerate enterprise adoption of Kubernetes.

 

VMware Blockchain

 

Announced today, VMware Blockchain is a service that will provide permissioned blockchain for enterprise consortiums which is intrinsically more secure than public blockchains. VMware Blockchain will provide the foundation for decentralized trust while delivering enterprise-grade scalability, reliability, security and manageability. The service will be integrated into existing VMware tools to help protect the network and compute functions that underlie a true enterprise blockchain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is a best practice for single-node deployments to use the vRealize Log Insight integrated load balancer (ILB) and to send queries and ingestion tra c to the ILB. This does not incur overhead and simpli es con guration if you want to add nodes to create a cluster for your deployment in the future

As a keen log insight follower i decided to put a small series of blogs together, there does not seem to be that many around so i thought it may improve the community a little. Steve Flanders a good friend of mine, he  has a great blog on log insight and being honest is probably the holly grail of information.

You can get to it by going to http://sflanders.net/ however i think sometimes its nice to see numerous peoples blogs….. Hopefully this series can help a few people, plus its about time i got off my rear and did something.

 

One of the great things with Log Insight is the ease of deployment, it really is as simple as downloading and deploying the OVA. Obviously there a little bit more to it than that, however if your keen to have a play then getting Log Insight into your R&D then its is really simple.

As alway i recommend popping over to the documentation centre and vmware and having a read of the current release notes as well as the rest of the documentation set.

 

https://docs.vmware.com/en/vRealize-Log-Insight/index.html

https://docs.vmware.com/en/vRealize-Log-Insight/4.5.1/rn/VMware-vRealize-Log-Insight-451-Release-Notes.html

First thing first is to get yourself over to vmware and download the latest version if you have a current license :

log insight download

 

Task 1 : Log into vCenter and click deploy OVF template

 

Point to your Log insight OVA

Name your Log insight instance

Chose your host to deploy to

Accept usual agreements

Chose correct size, it defaults to small however as this is my home lab extra small is ample

Chose storage policy

Enter you networks settings

Hit Finish, it will then go off and deploy the OVF. It generally does not take to long however is dependant on the size of deployment and type of disks you are creating. Other factors are down to your infrastructure, my home lab is certainly not the best.

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Once deployed the VM we will be off, the next post will go through the deployment wizard.