In my previous blog post, we explored VCF Operations and its key components, a foundational topic for understanding the future of VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF). Now, as we continue preparing for the upcoming VCF release, let’s dive into VCF Operations Fleet Management—a new concept that many are still getting familiar with, as it was introduced only a few months ago!
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Continue reading “VCF Operations Fleet Management: What You Need to Know”VMware Cloud Foundation Operations is the next generation of Aria Operations and tightly integrated with VMware VCF-based private cloud infrastructure. At its core, VCF Operations is an Ops Management tool, but with the next release of VMware Cloud Foundation, VCF Operations will be the focal point for managing and operating the VMware VCF environment. VCF Operations will integrate single sign-on, certificate, password, and lifecycle management(LCM) capabilities. Simply put, it will be the centralized point for configuring the VCF private cloud and will be mainly used, but not limited to, for VCF day-2 operations. In this blog post, we’ll go through the components and architecture of VCF Operations.
If you have experience working with Aria Operations or Aria Operations, then understanding the components and architecture of VCF Operations won’t be hard for you! But don’t worry if you don’t have experience with vROps or Aria Ops! Keep reading this blog post, and you’ll get a better idea.
Continue reading “Introduction to VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) Operations”In the previous two blog posts, we installed and configured the Microsoft Certificate Service, prepared a certificate template, and configured a service account to follow the least privilege policy. In this blog post, we will bring everything together by integrating the Microsoft CA with VCF’s SDDC Manager and requesting a certificate from the CA for the VCF components.
Connect to the SDDC Manager UI, log in with a privileged user account, and choose the Certificate Authority option on the left panel. Then click on Edit to open the configuration page.
Continue reading “Configure a Microsoft Certificate Authority in SDDC Manager”In the previous blog post, we discussed the installation and initial configuration of Microsoft Certificate Service on a Windows Server and enabled Certificate Web Enrollment on that server. The second step to replacing the default self-signed certificate in VCF is to prepare the Certificate Authority with a new certificate template and assign a service account so that an alternative user can request the certificates instead of the default administrative accounts. With that said, let’s move forward with creating the customized certificate template.
When you request a certificate from a Certificate Authority(CA), the CA lets you choose from its templates store. We must create a template and publish it in the certificate store to create a customized certificate. Open the Certificate Authority snap-in from the CA server’s Administrative Tools to create the customized certificate. If you click Certificate Templates under your CA, you’ll see all the valid certificates in the certificate store.
Continue reading “Prepare Certificate Authority for VCF Certificate Replacement”One standard method of issuing valid certificates to infrastructure software solutions like VMware Cloud Foundation(VCF) is through an internal Microsoft Certificate Authority(CA). Most organizations that use Active Directory(AD) as a directory service also use AD Certificate Services to issue certificates when replacing the self-signed, auto-generated certificates. Even though this service might be installed and running in your infrastructure, this blog post explains how to install and configure it on a Windows Server machine to integrate with VCF infrastructure. After installing and configuring Certificate Authority, we should create a Certificates Template, integrate VCF with this CA, and finally request certificates and replace them through SDDC Manager,
In this post, we will install AD CS on a Windows Server 2022 joined to an Active Directory domain and configure Web Enrollment to allow users to request and retrieve certificates via a web interface.
Continue reading “Installing and Configuring Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS)”Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) is a secure method for transferring files over a network. Unlike traditional FTP, which sends data in plain text, SFTP utilizes the Secure Shell (SSH) protocol to encrypt both the authentication information and the data being transferred. This encryption ensures that sensitive data remains protected during transit, making SFTP a preferred choice for secure file transfers in various environments.
Having an SFTP server is important in a VMware environment for secure and reliable file-based backups. Components like vCenter server, NSX manager, and SDDC manager use SFTP for file-based backups. SFTP also allows for centralized backup management and remote storage, enhancing disaster recovery capabilities by safeguarding data off-site and enabling quick restoration.
In this blog post, I’ll explain step-by-step how to setup SFTP service on an Ubuntu server.
Continue reading “Setup SFTP on Ubuntu Server”In Part 1 of NSX SSL Certificate Replacement, the process of certificate template preparation and request has been explained. This blog post will teach you how to import and replace the generated certificate into NSX Manager. It is essential to verify the imported certificate before replacing it. I want to point out that if you are using a Virtual IP for your NSX management cluster, you should have generated the SSL certificate for the management cluster’s Virtual IP address.
We have observed innovation, easy management, and supporting numerous features in every vSAN update. VMware announced vSAN 8U2, which contains new topology, features, and enhancements.
In this blog post, I will highlight the most crucial feature updates for Original Storage Architecture (OSA) and vSAN Express Storage Architecture (ESA) that come into three different categories:
So let’s start with introducing vSAN’s new Disaggregated HCI offering known as vSAN MAX, which provides high performance, efficiency, and resiliency. This solution is based on vSAN ESA, and it is very easy to scale in an incremental fashion. So instead of adding compute and storage together, you can add more storage and provide multiple petabytes of capacity for a vSphere cluster. vSAN Max supports up to 360TB capacity per host, which means with a maximum of 24 nodes per cluster in vSAN MAX, you can provide 8.5-petabyte storage for vSphere clusters.
Continue reading “What’s New in vSAN 8U2”In September 2022, an announcement was made about the release of vSphere 8 with new features and capabilities. Building on this momentum, the subsequent release of vSphere 8U1 brings new enhancements and improvements into three different categories of operating efficiency, elevated security, and supercharged workloads. So, by these pillars, customers can operate their infrastructure more efficiently, securely, and agile. So let’s start with the new enhancements in vSphere 8U1.
Operating efficiency
In vSphere 8, vSphere Configuration Profiles were introduced as a tech preview with some limitations of not supporting vSphere Distributed Switch and NSX. If you have not checked this functionality, read my blog post on what’s new in vSphere 8, which explains this functionality in more detail. But In vSphere 8U1, vSphere Configuration Profile is now fully supported and allows administrators to apply the homogenous configuration at the cluster level.
So you can set the desired configuration at the cluster level in JSON format and check the compliance of the hosts in the cluster; if they are not compliant, you can remediate the hosts to become compliant. But one point to remember, If the cluster has a Host profile attached to it, you will get a warning to remove the Host profile when you want to move to vSphere Configuration Profile. When you transition, you can no longer attach host profiles to the hosts within the cluster. vSphere Configuration Profiles now supports vDS configuration, and it can be activated when you create a new cluster, but environments with NSX still can’t use this technology.
Continue reading “What’s New vSphere 8 Update 1”On August 30, 2022, VMware announced vSAN 8 with a different architecture called vSAN Express Storage Architecture (ESA). You may have already heard about the significant performance improvement, increased network throughput, and enhanced scalability that ESA offers. However, VMware has continued to innovate. With vSAN 8 U1, additional features and capabilities have been added to both the original vSAN architecture (OSA) and ESA, providing even greater flexibility and efficiency. In this article, we will focus on the new features of vSAN 8 Update 1.
The new capabilities in vSAN 8U1 are categorized into four pillars: Disaggregation, Performance Enhancement, Ease of Use, and Cloud-Native Storage.
Continue reading “What’s New in vSAN 8 Update 1”