VMware NSX is not downloadable even for VCP-NV people!

This post is kind of a rant to express my displeasure in not allowing to download NSX software.

Since I couldn't download NSX I raised a support request with VMware. I mentioned I am a VCP-NV yet I cannot download NSX software to install on my own lab environment.

The support person has confirmed that it is not downloadable, and that's only available for customer's who have purchased the software.

I believe the adoption of software will only come from enabling the engineers. That enablement come in a major way of trying out the software in your own labs. NSX is no exception to it.

I might be one individual voicing this. But I strongly believe at least allow VCP's in NV to be able to download the software.

How Windows 2016 licensing works with VMware (virtual) environments?

Are you confused with Windows 2016 licensing like me? 
Well it seems nothing have changed apart from minimum of 16 cores has to be complied.

Upto 8 cores per processor or 16 cores per server there is a minimum license number that has to be complied. 

License comes in 2-core packs. At least 8 packs needs to be purchased to comply with the licensing. 

If Standard License were chosen it comes with 2 vm guest licenses.
If Datacenter License were chosen it covers unlimited virtual guest licenses.

What's new in vSphere 6.5, vSAN 6.5 and vRealize Automation 7.2

Here are the new features of vSphere 6.5, vSAN 6.5 and vRA 7.2

vSphere 6.5
- Introduction of vCenter HA without dependency of shared storage
- Granular based backup that can supplement image based backup tools
- Integrated Update Manager (VUM) is now integrated with VCSA. Doesn't need a Windows License.
It will be enable by default and can scale at any level of your VMware Cluster.
- New graphical interface is now available for Auto Deploy which easy and very intuitive.
- Native HTML5 Client is integrated.
- Both web clients will be available that can be run side by side.
- Automated migration process of Windows based vCenter to VCSA.
- ESXi secure boot and with trusted signed code.
- Applying encryption to individual machines
- Encrypted vMotion traffic.
- vSphere integrated containers offers docker containers
- REST APIs for Virtual machine operations for DevOps workflows.
- Orchestrated HA restart for tiered applications.

vSAN 6.5
vSAN Native Support for iSCSI Target
- Support for Physical servers. Which means an iSCSI lun can be provision for non-vSphere Physical workloads
- Support for MSCS with shared storage. 
- This also supports MS Exchange DAG with share witness node majority quorum.
- MS SQL Availability Groups with file share witness or node majorit quorum.
- Oracle RAC Support
- MS SQL Failover Cluster Instances support
- Since iSCSI natively supported other 3rd party hypervisors like MS Hyper-V are supported.

2 Node Direct Connect Support
- This means it has the ability two nodes directly using a crossover cable
- Two cables between hosts for higher av
- Support for T1 lines for ROBO scenarios

vSAN for Cloud Native Apps
- Support for vSphere Integrated containers
- It extends the support with Photon controllers to integrate with kubernetes and mesosphere.
- It can now run containerized storage in production environments.
- Native vSphere container data volumes support.
- Leverages existing vSphere/vSAN features.
- Developer-friendly APIs for storage provisioning and consumption.


vRealize Automation 7.2
1. Azure Endpoint - The ability to manage deployments in MS Azure
2. Container Management - Support for Docker hosts, containers with ability to consume docker compose files and covert to vRA blueprints.
3. ServiceNow Integration - ServiceNow service catalog and CMDB integration is possible now and is a feature out of the box.

Can we disable Transparent Page Sharing (TPS)??? - Update

I was caught off guard today where I happen to answer a community question. The question was "Is TPS is enabled by default?"

TPS is a mechanism of compressing memory by eliminating same copies of memory and having one copy of the same memory page and is shared by all vm's.

My first response to the question was "Yes". Well that was the case until recent past. But when I did some research I found that there are changes to TPS. 

TPS can be disabled. The reason behind bringing these changes are an academic research has found that it poses a security threat under very controlled situations. VMware believes it's only under controlled situations and it only poses a minimal threat. So VMware has taken a stance that it can be disabled in future releases of ESXi and consequently patches were released. 

But you still can enable if you want this feature after disabling.

Salting allows Granular management of VM’s using TPS. With new setting vm’s can only share pages if the salt values and contents of the pages are exactly the same. Mem.ShareForceSalting  on host config option is used enable or disable salting.

The following table shows how different settings for TPS are used together to effect how TPS operates for individual virtual machines:

Mem. ShareForceSalting (host setting)	sched.mem.pshare.salt (per VM setting)	vc.uuid (per VM setting)	Salt value of VM	TPS between VMs (Inter-VM)	TPS within a VM (Intra-VM)
0	Ignored	Ignored	0	Yes, among all VMs on host.	yes
1	Present	Ignored	sched.mem.pshare.salt	Only among VMs with same salt	yes
1	Not Present	Ignored	0	Yes, among all VMs	yes
2	Present	Ignored	sched.mem.pshare.salt	Only among VMs with same salt	yes
2 (default)	Not Present (default)	Present (default)	vc.uuid	No inter-VM TPS	yes
2	Not Present	Not Present	random number	No inter-VM TPS	yes

For more information on TPS, refer the following blog: http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2015/01/assess-the-performance-impact-of-the-security-change-in-transparent-page-sharing-behaviour.html

"By default, Mem.ShareForceSalting is set 0, which means by default Inter-VM page sharing is enabled. This behavior is same as old TPS behavior that exists in all older releases." 

To fully understand this we need to understand what is inter-vm and intra-vm TPS is.

Inter-VM TPS is that it occurs inside of a virtual machine. Intra-VM TPS is that it occurs across the vm's.

For more: http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-60/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.vmware.vsphere.resmgmt.doc%2FGUID-F9111E35-E197-46EC-8350-77827A5A2DEC.html

https://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2080735

https://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&docTypeID=DT_KB_1_1&externalId=2091682

Bug fix

https://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&docTypeID=DT_KB_1_1&externalId=2087359

VMware announced Cross-Cloud Architecture

What is Cross Cloud Architecture?

During VMworld a new model for IT was unveiled along with a new software.

VMware introduced a new model for IT called Cross Cloud Architecture. To fully understand the concept of Cross cloud architecture one must analyze VMware's vision for it's IT model.

VMware not long ago introduced the "Brave New IT" model. Which consisted of "One Cloud, Any Application any device." If I rephrase that, a customer can use a cloud of his choice Private, Public and Hybrid Cloud to run any application that he desires and to deliver it to any device of his choice.

The below infographic explains in one picture.

The Cross-Cloud Architecture means that it takes the same model up one a notch. In other words it's the "Brave New It Model 2.0". VMware takes the same vision and remodels it to "Any Cloud, Any Application Any device"

"VMware has redefined its Hybrid Cloud Strategy with new public and private cloud capabilities that enables customers to run, manage, connect, and secure their applications across clouds and devices in a common operating environment."

"VMware's Cross-Cloud Architecture enables consistent deployment models, security policies, visibility, and governance for all applications-whether they are running on-premise or off, and regardless of the underlying cloud or hypervisor."

Courtesy of: http://www.vmware.com/radius/cross-cloud-introduction/

What does it mean for customer?

Cross-Cloud architecture brings the freedom and control to customer to choose any cloud to run their workload. It empowers enterprises to run, manage, connect and secure their apps across clouds and devices in a common operating environment.

VMwareCloud Foundation?

VMware has taken the core components of SDDC VMware vSphere, VMware vSAN and NSX into one unified platform and includes SDDC Manager on top of the core constructs to automate the deployment and management of VMware Cloud Software.

It comes as a software bundle and as a SaaS model.

http://venthusiast.blogspot.com/2016/10/what-is-cloud-foundation.html

What is Cloud Foundation?

VMware introduced Cross-Cloud Architecture along with Cloud Foundation Software.

Cloud foundation software is a Unified SDDC platform which integrates vSphere, vSAN and NSX. It can be used on premise private cloud deployment or run as a service from the public cloud.

It also comes with a SDDC Manager that automates the entire life cycle and deployment. It can be integrated with other VMware products such as vRealize Suite, VMware Horizon and VMware Integrated Openstack. (VIO)

It can be deployed in following options,

• Ready nodes
• Integrated systems
• As a service from the public cloud

Could this be the enabler for VMware-Amazon partnership?

http://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/datasheet/products/vmware-cloud-foundation-datasheet.pdf

OMG! Who saw this coming? AWS and VMware Partnering!

This could be a "break the internet" type of news!

So AWS cloud will run VMware Cloud Software will run ontop of AWS Infrastructure.

It will be running VMware ESXi Hypervisor, Virtual SAN, NSX to run the VMware Cloud.

extracted from www.aws.com

Further details is yet not known. 

AWS press release  could be found here https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/in-the-works-vmware-cloud-on-aws/

https://aws.amazon.com/vmware/

VMware Press Release: http://www.vmware.com/company/news/releases/vmw-newsfeed.VMware-and-AWS-Announce-New-Hybrid-Cloud-Service,-%E2%80%9CVMware-Cloud-on-AWS%E2%80%9D.3188645-manual.html

Hints on vSphere 6.5???

There are blog posts sprouted saying that vSphere 6.5 will be launched any time soon.

Some are discussed in these blog posts.

http://up2v.nl/2016/09/02/vmware-vsphere-6-5-to-be-announced-at-vmworld-barcelona/ 

http://www.vladan.fr/vmware-vsphere-6-5-is-next/

Changes to vSphere & vSOM Licensing

So once again VMware has changed its licensing structure on VMware vSphere and vSOM cumulatively.

VMware has chosen to eliminate Enterprise version of vSphere, also it has got rid of Standard and Enterprise versions of vSOM.

The licensing structure is as follows.

vCenter is now included with 25 Operating System Instance of Log Insight in all editions of vSphere and vSOM.

vSphere Standard       vSphere Enterprise Plus      vSOM Enterprise Plus

However the licensing is still socket based.

To compare the editions please refer http://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere.html

It seems I have already documented on my previous post about this on http://venthusiast.blogspot.com/2016/06/vsphere-license-changes.html

4 New VCAP Exams released!

4 VCAP Exams were released yesterday by VMware

It also linked to email addresses to different regions if you have any queries about these certifications and overall certifications in general.

https://mylearn.vmware.com/mgrReg/plan.cfm?plan=36796&ui=www_edu&rcode=blog&mid=4131&eid=CVMW2000018756722

VMware Certified Advanced Professional 6 (VCAP6) exams:

VMware Certified Advanced Professional 6 – Desktop and Mobility Deployment

VMware Certified Advanced Professional 6 – Cloud Management and Automation Design

VMware Certified Advanced Professional 6 – Data Center Virtualization Design

VMware Certified Advanced Professional 6 – Desktop and Mobility Design

ESXi Build numbers and their patch level

Today a question was raised which patch will change the build number of ESXi. Probably it is a compliance requirement to have a particular build across the Data centers. When you update certain major patch can alter and raise the build number this KB article can help in tracking what are those patches which can affect the build number.

https://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&docTypeID=DT_KB_1_1&externalId=2143832

Below is an excerpt of the patch list.

vCloud Suite and vRealize Suite demystified!

If I simply put,

vSphere Enterprise Plus + vRealize Suite = vCloud Suite

Get the drift?

vCloud is a bundle of vSphere and vRealize Suite. 

Customers have the option of purchasing vRealize Suite separately. But both together come in great discounts. vRealize Suite has 3 Editions. These editions determine the edition of vCloud Suite. It's noticed that Site Recovery Manager is excluded from these offerings of vCloud and vRealize Suites.

vRealize Suite Editions

vCloud Suite Editions

Each component upgrades during each editions

vSphere 6 License Changes

During my latest pre-sales engagement I was asked to lay out the vSphere License feature comparison.

A you can see below VMware has decided to get rid of the Enterprise License and also have got rid of the vSOM Standard and Enterprise. (At lease not mentioned in www.vmware.com)

I personally hate when changes happen, as we have to keep tab on this time and time again. 

Features	Standard	Enterprise Plus	vSOM Enterprise Plus
vMotion	With Cross vSwitch	(+ Cross vSwitch / Cross vCenter / Long Distance)	(+ Cross vSwitch / Cross vCenter / Long Distance)
Storage vMotion	Yes	Yes	Yes
High Availability	Yes	Yes	Yes
Data Protection	Yes	Yes	Yes
Fault Tolerance	2 vCPU	4 vCPU	4 vCPU
vShield Endpoint	Yes	Yes	Yes
vSphere Replication	Yes	Yes	Yes
Hot Add	Yes	Yes	Yes
Vitual Volumes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Storage Policy Based Management	Yes	Yes	Yes
Reliable Memory	No	Yes	Yes
Big Data Extentions	No	Yes	Yes
Virtual Port Serial Concentrator	No	Yes	Yes
DRS/DPM	No	Yes	Yes
Storage DRS	No	Yes	Yes
SIOC	No	Yes	Yes
NIOC	No	Yes	Yes
SRIOV Support	No	Yes	Yes
NVIDIA GRID vGPU	No	Yes	Yes
Content Library	Yes	Yes	Yes
Storage API for Array Integration and Multipathing	Yes	Yes	Yes
Distributed vSwitch	No	Yes	Yes
Host Profiles and Auto Deploy	No	Yes	Yes
Management Oprations	No	No	Yes