As I flipped through the pages of my old notebook from 2011, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of nostalgia wash over me. It was a time when I first started at Legacy EMC as a vSpecialist, and my manager, Travers Nicholas, had just laid out the roles and values of our team. He emphasized the importance of sales support, marketing support, enablement, and learning. These principles have stayed with me throughout my journey at EMC, now Dell EMC, and I still operate by them today.

As a vSpecialist, my primary role was to support our sales counterparts and ensure technical wins for our customers. We worked closely with the marketing team to promote EMC as the “Number One” choice for VMware environments. We provided content such as presentations, documentation, and newsletters, and spoke at events like EMC Forum and vForum.

One of the most important aspects of being a vSpecialist was enablement. We had access to cutting-edge information and content, but it was only valuable if everyone was aware of it and could deliver the same message. Therefore, we enabled fellow presales team members and delivered the “Why EMC for VMware” messaging. This messaging was crucial for both sales and presales, as well as our partner presales community.

Learning was also a key aspect of being a vSpecialist. We needed to learn about a lot of information, and there were weekly calls across both EMC and VMware portfolios. It was overwhelming at times, but we were expected to know lots about a lot. We learned so as to deliver the messaging effectively.

Since then, I’ve moved from vSpecialist to the Advanced Software Division, transitioned to the Software Defined Solutions Division, and now I’m part of the core presales focusing on the Telco space. My role has changed, but the company has changed, and I still operate by the vSpecialist principles instilled in me six years ago.

One thing that Travers told me back then was “Read virtual-geek, often.” This blog, run by Chad Sakac, is a great source of relevant industry context. It’s amazing how Chad manages to do what he does – writing pages and pages of content for his blog while still running the vSpecialist organization (and later global presales). It still remains a mystery, but Chad is indeed amazing at what he does.

As I look back on my time as a vSpecialist, I’m reminded of a line from a song famous among vSpecialists: “We’re number one, vSpecialists, we get the job done.” It’s a sense of pride and camaraderie that I still carry with me today.

In conclusion, my experience as a vSpecialist at EMC/Dell EMC has been invaluable. The principles instilled in me six years ago – sales support, marketing support, enablement, and learning – continue to guide me in my current role. I’m grateful for the opportunity to work with such an incredible team and for the lessons I’ve learned along the way.

Deploying Unified Access Gateways for VMware Horizon Cloud Service: A Comprehensive Guide

In today’s digital age, secure access to virtual desktops and applications is more crucial than ever. With the rise of cloud computing and remote work, organizations are looking for innovative solutions to protect their sensitive data and ensure seamless user experience. One such solution is VMware Horizon Cloud Service, which provides a scalable and secure platform for delivering virtual desktops and applications. However, to fully leverage the benefits of this technology, organizations need to deploy Unified Access Gateways (UAGs) that can provide secure access to these resources.

In this blog post, we will delve into the process of deploying UAGs for VMware Horizon Cloud Service, highlighting the key steps and considerations that IT administrators should keep in mind. We will also discuss the benefits of using UAGs and how they can help organizations improve their security posture and provide a better user experience.

Understanding Unified Access Gateways

Before we dive into the deployment process, it’s essential to understand what UAGs are and how they work. UAGs are next-gen access gateways that provide secure access to virtual desktops and applications delivered by VMware Horizon Cloud Service. These devices act as a single point of entry for users and provide a range of features, including:

1. Authentication: UAGs can authenticate users using a variety of methods, such as username and password, multi-factor authentication (MFA), or smart cards.

2. Authorization: Once authenticated, UAGs can check that users have the correct authorization tokens to access specific resources.

3. Load balancing: UAGs can be configured in a load-balanced setup to ensure that no single device is overwhelmed with traffic.

4. SSL offloading: UAGs can offload SSL encryption from the web server, improving performance and reducing the burden on the server.

5. Application firewall: UAGs can provide application-level firewall protection to block malicious traffic and protect against unauthorized access.

Deploying UAGs for VMware Horizon Cloud Service

Now that we understand the benefits of UAGs, let’s explore the process of deploying them for VMware Horizon Cloud Service. Here are the key steps involved:

Step 1: Planning and Design

Before deploying UAGs, IT administrators need to plan and design the architecture. This includes identifying the number of users, the number of virtual desktops and applications, and the network infrastructure that will be used.

Step 2: Provisioning UAGs

Once the planning and design phase is complete, IT administrators can provision UAGs. This involves purchasing or licensing the UAG software and configuring the hardware and network settings.

Step 3: Configure Load Balancing

To ensure that no single UAG is overwhelmed with traffic, IT administrators need to configure load balancing. This involves setting up a load-balanced cluster of UAGs and configuring the IP addresses and ports used for communication.

Step 4: Configure SSL Offloading

To improve performance and reduce the burden on the web server, IT administrators can configure SSL offloading on the UAGs. This involves setting up a trusted certificate authority and configuring the SSL offloading settings.

Step 5: Configure Application Firewall

To provide application-level firewall protection, IT administrators can configure an application firewall on the UAGs. This involves defining the rules for allowing or blocking traffic based on the application and the source IP address.

Step 6: Testing and Validation

Before deploying the UAGs in a production environment, IT administrators need to test and validate the configuration. This includes testing the authentication, authorization, load balancing, SSL offloading, and application firewall configurations.

Benefits of Using UAGs for VMware Horizon Cloud Service

Using UAGs for VMware Horizon Cloud Service offers several benefits, including:

1. Improved Security: UAGs provide a range of security features, such as authentication, authorization, and application firewall protection, to ensure that only authorized users can access virtual desktops and applications.

2. Scalability: UAGs can be easily scaled up or down based on the changing needs of the organization, making them an ideal solution for organizations with growing user bases.

3. Better User Experience: By providing a secure and seamless access experience, UAGs can improve user satisfaction and productivity.

4. Simplified Management: UAGs can be easily managed using a centralized management console, making it easier for IT administrators to monitor and maintain the environment.

Conclusion

In conclusion, deploying Unified Access Gateways (UAGs) for VMware Horizon Cloud Service is an essential step in providing secure access to virtual desktops and applications. By understanding the key steps involved in the deployment process and the benefits of using UAGs, IT administrators can ensure a successful implementation that meets the needs of their organization. With UAGs, organizations can improve their security posture, provide a better user experience, and simplify management of their virtual desktop infrastructure.

As the virtualization landscape continues to evolve, one of the most significant trends is the shift towards hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI). HCI combines compute, storage, and networking resources into a single, software-defined system, allowing for greater flexibility, scalability, and cost savings. As more organizations adopt HCI solutions, there is an increasing need for tools that can benchmark and evaluate the performance of these systems. This is where HCIBench comes in.

HCIBench is a free, open-source tool developed by VMware that enables customers to perform comprehensive performance testing of their HCI environments. The tool provides a consistent and controlled way to test HCI clusters, allowing customers to evaluate the performance of their systems and identify areas for improvement. In this blog post, we’ll take a closer look at HCIBench, its features, and how it can help organizations optimize their HCI environments.

What is HCIBench?

—————–

HCIBench stands for “Hyper-converged Infrastructure Benchmark” and is an automation wrapper around the popular VDbench open-source benchmark tool. The tool aims to simplify and accelerate customer proof-of-concept (POC) performance testing in a consistent and controlled way. HCIBench is not limited to vSAN, but it can also be used to evaluate the performance of all kinds of hyper-converged infrastructure storage in vSphere environments.

Features of HCIBench

———————–

HCIBench offers a range of features that make it an essential tool for organizations adopting HCI solutions. Some of its key features include:

* **Automated Testing**: HCIBench automates the entire testing process, from deploying test VMs to collecting results. This eliminates the need for manual testing and ensures consistent results.

* **Customizable Workloads**: The tool allows customers to define their own workloads or use pre-defined ones. This enables organizations to test their specific use cases and evaluate the performance of their HCI environments under real-world conditions.

* **Multiple Test Profiles**: HCIBench supports multiple test profiles, including read-intensive, write-intensive, and mixed workloads. This allows customers to evaluate their HCI systems under different scenarios and identify areas for improvement.

* **Granular Performance Metrics**: The tool provides detailed performance metrics, such as IOPS, throughput, and latency, allowing customers to optimize their HCI environments for specific workloads.

* **Troubleshooting Support**: HCIBench includes features like data collection and analysis, which can help organizations identify and resolve issues in their HCI environments.

How to Use HCIBench

———————–

Using HCIBench is relatively straightforward. Here are the basic steps involved in using the tool:

1. Download and Install HCIBench: Customers can download HCIBench from the VMware Labs website. Once downloaded, the tool can be installed on a Windows or Linux machine.

2. Configure HCIBench: After installation, customers need to configure the tool by providing the IP address of their HCI cluster and other relevant details.

3. Define Workloads: Customers can define their own workloads or use pre-defined ones to test their HCI environments.

4. Run Tests: Once workloads are defined, customers can run tests using the automated testing feature of HCIBench.

5. Analyze Results: After running the tests, customers can analyze the results to identify areas for improvement in their HCI environments.

Benefits of Using HCIBench

—————————–

HCIBench offers several benefits to organizations adopting HCI solutions. Some of these benefits include:

* **Improved Performance**: By using HCIBench to test and optimize their HCI environments, organizations can improve the performance of their systems and ensure that they are meeting the needs of their applications and users.

* **Cost Savings**: HCIBench helps organizations identify areas for improvement in their HCI environments, which can lead to cost savings by reducing the need for additional hardware or resources.

* **Simplified Troubleshooting**: The tool provides detailed performance metrics and troubleshooting support, making it easier for customers to identify and resolve issues in their HCI environments.

* **Increased Agility**: With HCIBench, organizations can quickly and easily test new configurations and deployments, allowing them to respond more rapidly to changing business needs.

Conclusion

———-

HCIBench is a powerful tool that enables organizations adopting HCI solutions to evaluate the performance of their systems and identify areas for improvement. With its automated testing features, customizable workloads, and granular performance metrics, HCIBench provides customers with a consistent and controlled way to test their HCI environments. By using this tool, organizations can improve the performance of their systems, reduce costs, simplify troubleshooting, and increase agility in response to changing business needs.

How to Configure Web Clips in VMware Workspace ONE UEM

In today’s digital age, mobile devices have become an essential tool for businesses and individuals alike. With the rise of mobile computing, the need for seamless access to web-based applications and content has increased significantly. As a result, virtualization and endpoint management (UEM) solutions have emerged as critical tools for organizations looking to manage their mobile environments effectively. One such solution is VMware Workspace ONE UEM, which offers a range of features to help organizations manage their mobile devices and web-based applications. In this article, we will explore how to configure web clips in VMware Workspace ONE UEM.

What are Web Clips?

Before we dive into the configuration process, it’s essential to understand what web clips are. Web clips are shortcuts to specific web pages or websites that can be added to a mobile device’s home screen, creating a seamless and convenient way for users to access their favorite sites. In VMware Workspace ONE UEM, web clips can be added as web links applications from the Resources > Apps > Web Links section of the console or through a profile (Resources > Profiles & Baselines > Profiles > Add).

Configuring Web Clips in VMware Workspace ONE UEM

To configure web clips in VMware Workspace ONE UEM, follow these steps:

Step 1: Add Web Links Application

From the Resources > Apps > Web Links section of the console, click on the “Add Application” button. In the Add Application window, enter the URL of the web page or website you want to add as a web clip. You can choose to open the URL in a specific browser, such as Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge, by selecting the appropriate option from the “Open in” dropdown menu.

Step 2: Configure Web Clips Profile

Alternatively, you can configure web clips through a profile. From the Resources > Profiles & Baselines > Profiles > Add section of the console, select the “Add Profile” button. In the Add Profile window, enter a name for your profile and select the appropriate platform (iOS or Android). Then, add the web clip URL to the profile by clicking on the “Add Web Links” button.

Step 3: Customize Web Clip Icon

Once you have added the web clip to your VMware Workspace ONE UEM console, you can customize the icon that appears on the home screen of your mobile device. To do this, click on the “Edit” button next to the web clip in the Resources > Apps > Web Links section of the console. In the Edit Web Link window, you can select a new icon for your web clip from the available icons or upload a custom icon.

Step 4: Add Web Clip for Each Operating System

As mentioned earlier, web clips need to be added separately for each operating system (iOS and Android) to ensure that users can access their favorite websites seamlessly. To add a web clip for each operating system, repeat the steps outlined in Steps 1-3 above for each platform.

Tips and Tricks for Configuring Web Clips in VMware Workspace ONE UEM

Here are some tips and tricks to keep in mind when configuring web clips in VMware Workspace ONE UEM:

* Use a unique name for your web clip to easily identify it on the home screen of your mobile device.

* Select an appropriate icon for your web clip to make it easily recognizable.

* Test your web clip on multiple devices and platforms to ensure that it works correctly.

* Consider using a profile to add web clips for multiple operating systems simultaneously.

* Use the “Open in” dropdown menu to select the appropriate browser for opening your web clip, such as Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge.

Conclusion

Configuring web clips in VMware Workspace ONE UEM is an essential part of managing your mobile environment effectively. By following the steps outlined in this article, you can easily add web clips to your mobile devices and provide users with seamless access to their favorite websites. Remember to customize the icon for your web clip to make it easily recognizable and test your web clips on multiple devices and platforms to ensure that they work correctly. With these tips and tricks, you’ll be well on your way to mastering web clips in VMware Workspace ONE UEM.

VMworld 2019 Keynote: A Roundup of Announcements

VMware’s Pat Gelsinger kicked off the VMworld keynote session with a series of announcements covering areas including cloud, data center, and Kubernetes. This article will provide an overview of the major announcements made during the keynote address.

1. Project Dimension: This is a new initiative that will enable customers to deploy and consume infrastructure as a managed service. It will be available on VxRail hardware and come with SD-WAN integration.

2. vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager (vRSLCM): This product has evolved into the go-to deployment tool that can deploy vRealize Suite of products in an automated way, saving many hours in deployment time and resulting in faster time to value of vRealize Suite of products.

3. vRealize Operations Self-Driving Operations: This version of vRealize Operations is now available as a SaaS service that can be used to monitor multi-cloud workloads in a pay-as-you-go model.

4. Azure VMware Solutions: This offering makes enterprise-class SDDC solutions available on native Azure cloud. It was announced that the Azure VMware Solutions will go GA on some of the Azure regions and customers can leverage this to migrate their existing vSphere workloads into Azure-hosted VMware environments.

5. vRealize Automation (vRA): This is a new SaaS offering that provides automated deployment, configuration, and scaling of vRealize Suite of products. It also supports multi-cluster management and application-centric workflows.

6. vRealize Operations (vRO): This product now supports intent-driven performance optimization for VMware Cloud on AWS with cross-cluster workload balancing and rightsizing.

7. Project Dimension: This is a new initiative that will enable customers to deploy and consume infrastructure as a managed service. It will be available on VxRail hardware and come with SD-WAN integration.

8. vRealize Network Insight (vRNI): This provides traffic flows and visibility across products in the VCN and other portfolios. NSX intelligence provides an in-depth analysis of network layer and suggestions on how to improve performance and design of your network infrastructure.

9. AVI Network: This will now be part of the NSX and VCN portfolio, bridging a crucial gap that the portfolio has in the space of advanced firewall and Application Load Balancing.

This article provides a comprehensive overview of the major announcements made during the VMworld 2019 keynote address. It covers a range of products and services related to cloud, data center, and Kubernetes, among others. Please let me know if there are any other announcements that I may have missed, and I will add them to this list. This is my personal blog; the opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer.

Copyright © 2024 vPirate. All Rights Reserved.

In today’s rapidly changing and unpredictable business landscape, technology plays a crucial role in shaping customers’ digital strategies. As organizations strive to stay ahead of the curve, they need to adopt cutting-edge solutions that can help them navigate the complexities of the modern IT environment. This is where VMware and AWS come into the picture, offering a powerful combination of technologies that enable businesses to thrive in a digital world.

The acute digital shortage continues to plague many organizations, making it challenging for them to stay competitive and relevant in their respective markets. However, with the help of VMware and AWS, businesses can leverage the power of cloud computing, virtualization, and other advanced technologies to bridge the digital divide and achieve their goals.

One of the most significant benefits of partnering with VMware and AWS is the ability to access a wide range of innovative solutions that can help organizations transform their digital strategies. For instance, VMware’s cloud computing offerings enable businesses to build, manage, and deploy applications across multiple environments, including on-premises data centers, public clouds, and hybrid cloud infrastructures. This allows organizations to create a more agile and responsive IT environment that can adapt quickly to changing market conditions.

AWS, on the other hand, offers a comprehensive suite of cloud services that enable businesses to build scalable, secure, and efficient digital systems. With AWS, organizations can leverage advanced technologies such as machine learning, analytics, and internet of things (IoT) to gain deeper insights into their operations and make more informed decisions.

Moreover, the constant and growing threat of ransomware attacks has made security a top priority for businesses of all sizes. Here, VMware and AWS offer a robust set of solutions that can help organizations protect themselves against cyber threats. For instance, VMware’s NSX network virtualization platform provides advanced security features such as micro-segmentation, intrusion detection, and prevention, while AWS offers a range of security services including identity and access management, encryption, and threat intelligence.

In addition to these benefits, partnering with VMware and AWS can also help organizations improve their operational efficiency and reduce costs. With cloud computing and virtualization technologies, businesses can consolidate their IT infrastructure, optimize resource utilization, and automate many of their processes. This can lead to significant cost savings and improved productivity, allowing organizations to invest more in innovation and growth.

In conclusion, the partnership between VMware and AWS is a powerful force that can help businesses shape their digital strategies and stay ahead of the curve in today’s rapidly changing technology landscape. With a wide range of innovative solutions and advanced technologies at their disposal, organizations can transform their IT environments, improve operational efficiency, and achieve their goals with confidence. So, if you’re looking to take your digital strategy to the next level, consider partnering with VMware and AWS – your business will thank you!

VMware vRealize Automation 8.7: Streamlining Infrastructure Automation for Faster Application Development and Deployment

In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, organizations are constantly looking for ways to streamline their application development and deployment processes to stay ahead of the competition. One of the key challenges they face is managing and automating their infrastructure in a way that supports agile development and DevOps practices. To address this challenge, VMware has just announced vRealize Automation 8.7, the latest release of its powerful and easy-to-use infrastructure automation platform.

In this blog post, we’ll dive deeper into what vRealize Automation 8.7 offers and how it can help customers reduce overall application development costs, complexity, and time to market. We’ll also explore how the latest release builds on VMware’s continued commitment to supporting the evolving needs of its customers and partners.

vRealize Automation 8.7: What’s New and Improved?

The latest version of vRealize Automation offers a host of new features and improvements that aim to simplify infrastructure automation and support faster application development and deployment. Some of the key highlights include:

1. Enhanced Support for Multi-Cloud and Hybrid Cloud Environments: With vRealize Automation 8.7, customers can now easily manage and automate their infrastructure across multiple cloud providers and on-premises environments, all from a single platform. This feature enables greater flexibility, cost savings, and better resource utilization for organizations with complex, hybrid IT environments.

2. Advanced Lifecycle Management: The latest release introduces advanced lifecycle management capabilities that allow customers to manage the entire application development and deployment lifecycle within vRealize Automation. This includes support for blue-green deployments, canary releases, and rolling updates, all of which help reduce downtime and improve application reliability.

3. Enhanced Support for Containers and Kubernetes: As more organizations adopt containerized applications and Kubernetes, vRealize Automation 8.7 provides tighter integration with these technologies. Customers can now use the platform to automate the deployment and management of containerized workloads on Kubernetes clusters, making it easier to scale and manage their modern application stacks.

4. Improved User Experience: The latest release features a more intuitive and user-friendly interface that makes it easier for developers, IT professionals, and DevOps teams to collaborate and automate their infrastructure. This includes new features like customizable dashboards, improved search functionality, and enhanced reporting capabilities.

How vRealize Automation 8.7 Can Help Customers

By leveraging the latest version of vRealize Automation, customers can achieve a range of benefits that help them accelerate their application development and deployment processes. Some of the key advantages include:

1. Faster Time-to-Market: With vRealize Automation 8.7, customers can automate their infrastructure provisioning, configuration, and deployment processes more quickly and easily. This enables faster time-to-market for new applications and services, helping organizations stay competitive in today’s fast-paced digital landscape.

2. Improved Agility: By streamlining infrastructure automation, customers can respond more quickly to changing business requirements and market conditions. This enables greater agility and flexibility in the face of evolving customer needs and market trends.

3. Reduced Costs: vRealize Automation 8.7 helps customers reduce overall application development costs by providing a platform that supports multi-cloud and hybrid cloud environments, containerized applications, and Kubernetes. This enables greater resource utilization, cost savings, and faster ROI.

4. Better Collaboration: With its improved user experience, vRealize Automation 8.7 facilitates better collaboration between developers, IT professionals, and DevOps teams. This leads to faster development cycles, fewer errors, and more successful deployments.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the latest release of VMware’s vRealize Automation platform represents a significant step forward in infrastructure automation for application development and deployment. With its enhanced support for multi-cloud and hybrid cloud environments, advanced lifecycle management capabilities, improved container support, and more intuitive user experience, vRealize Automation 8.7 offers a powerful solution for organizations looking to streamline their IT operations and accelerate their time-to-market for new applications and services.

As VMware continues to innovate and evolve its product portfolio in response to customer needs, the company remains committed to supporting the evolving needs of its customers and partners. With vRealize Automation 8.7, organizations can reduce overall application development costs, complexity, and time to market, while improving agility, collaboration, and resource utilization. Whether you’re a developer, IT professional, or DevOps expert, this latest release from VMware is sure to help you achieve your goals more quickly and easily than ever before.

As a VMware enthusiast, I am excited to share my thoughts on connecting AVS to your on-prem environment. This feature has been gaining traction lately, and for good reason – it offers numerous benefits that can enhance your organization’s security and efficiency. In this blog post, we will delve into the intricacies of connecting AVS to your on-prem environment and explore some of the exciting use cases that this feature offers.

To begin with, let us understand what AVS is and why it is important to connect it to your on-prem environment. AVS stands for Application Virtualization Service, which is a cloud-based platform offered by VMware that allows you to virtualize your applications and deliver them to your end-users. By connecting AVS to your on-prem environment, you can leverage the power of hybrid cloud computing and enjoy the benefits of both cloud and on-premises infrastructure.

Now, let us discuss some of the key benefits of connecting AVS to your on-prem environment:

1. Enhanced Security: By connecting AVS to your on-prem environment, you can enjoy enhanced security features such as multi-factor authentication, data encryption, and access controls. This ensures that your applications and data are protected from unauthorized access and breaches.

2. Improved Management: With AVS connected to your on-prem environment, you can easily manage your applications and users across both cloud and on-premises infrastructure. This simplifies the process of application deployment, updates, and troubleshooting.

3. Increased Efficiency: By leveraging hybrid cloud computing, you can optimize resource utilization and reduce costs associated with managing separate environments for your applications and users. This leads to increased efficiency and productivity.

4. Better Collaboration: With AVS connected to your on-prem environment, you can enable better collaboration between teams and departments. This fosters a more cohesive and streamlined work environment that is better equipped to tackle complex projects and challenges.

Now, let us explore some of the exciting use cases of connecting AVS to your on-prem environment:

1. Remote Workforce: With AVS connected to your on-prem environment, you can easily provide remote access to your applications and data for your workforce. This enables your employees to work from anywhere, at any time, without compromising security or productivity.

2. Cloud-Native Applications: By connecting AVS to your on-prem environment, you can seamlessly migrate your cloud-native applications to a hybrid cloud infrastructure. This allows you to take advantage of the scalability and flexibility of cloud computing while maintaining control over your data and applications.

3. Legacy Applications: If you have legacy applications that are not cloud-ready, connecting AVS to your on-prem environment can help you virtualize these applications and deliver them to your end-users. This allows you to modernize your application portfolio without having to rebuild or replace existing systems.

4. Disaster Recovery: With AVS connected to your on-prem environment, you can easily implement disaster recovery strategies that ensure business continuity in the event of an outage or natural disaster. This helps minimize downtime and protect your data and applications from loss or damage.

In conclusion, connecting AVS to your on-prem environment offers numerous benefits that can enhance your organization’s security, efficiency, and collaboration. By leveraging hybrid cloud computing and virtualizing your applications, you can unlock the full potential of your IT infrastructure and achieve greater success in today’s fast-paced digital landscape. As always, we would love to hear from you and learn about your experiences with connecting AVS to your on-prem environment. Please feel free to share your thoughts and suggestions in the comments section below. Thank you for reading!

Monitoring NSX-T Edges with vSkeeBall and Kusto

As a customer of NSX-T, you may have encountered challenges when trying to monitor your edges in AVS. This is due to the fact that the edges are considered management components, and therefore, customer do not get access to the edge VMs in AVS (or most other clouds). However, all hope is not lost! With vSkeeBall and Kusto, you can still gather statistics and monitor your NSX-T edges with ease.

vSkeeBall is a software program that allows you to pull interface and CPU stats for the edge VMs and T0 uplinks. This is done through some API calls, which provide read access to the Edges nodes, T0s, and T1s through NSX. With this access, you can collect, store, and graph data on a dashboard.

The repo for vSkeeBall includes a dashboard that displays the collected data. The script will run every 10 seconds, collecting data once every 17 seconds or so in my environment. You may want to adjust the polling interval to something more reasonable based on your specific needs.

To use vSkeeBall, follow the instructions in the readme file located in the repo. The script is written in Python and uses two Azure services: Kusto and Storage. Kusto is a cloud-based data warehouse that provides fast and efficient querying of large datasets. Storage is used to store the collected data.

With vSkeeBall, you can easily monitor your NSX-T edges and gain valuable insights into their performance. This is not an enterprise monitoring solution, but it will collect and display data for you. The dashboard includes graphs that show the CPU usage, memory usage, and network traffic for each edge VM and T0 uplink.

In conclusion, vSkeeBall and Kusto provide a powerful combination for monitoring NSX-T edges. With their help, you can easily gather statistics and monitor your environment with ease. While this solution is not enterprise-ready, it can still provide valuable insights into the performance of your NSX-T edges. So why wait? Give vSkeeBall a try today!

vRaccoon’s Tanzu CLI Adventures: Overcoming Certificate Issues on Windows

As a vRaccoon, I’ve had the pleasure of working with various VMware technologies, including the Tanzu Kubernetes Clusters. Recently, I faced an interesting challenge while trying to use the Tanzu CLI on a Windows machine. In this blog post, I’ll share my experiences and the solutions I found to overcome certificate issues when installing plugins.

Tanzu CLI: A Powerful Interface for Your Tanzu Kubernetes Clusters

Before diving into thecertificate issues, let me provide a brief overview of the Tanzu CLI. This powerful command-line interface provides features like package management, cluster management, and more, all within a modular framework. Plugins are used to extend the functionality of the CLI, making it even more versatile.

Certificate Issues on Windows: A Common Pitfall

When I tried to install some plugins on my Windows machine, I encountered a certificate issue. At first, I suspected the proxy server, but after rebuilding it at home, the issue persisted. Thankfully, there is a similar-looking issue documented in the Tanzu Community docs. The suggested solution was to add the following line to the %USERPROFILE%.configtanzutkgconfig.yaml file:

“`yaml

x509_trust_store: path/to/ca.pem

“`

This solution helped some people, but it didn’t work for me. I had to find another solution.

Offline Method for Installing Plugins: The Savior!

Thanks to Scott Rosenberg, I found the decisive tip – an offline way to install plugins. As cool as it is to download the latest and greatest versions fully automated with a one-liner, there is also an offline method. The Tanzu CLI bundle for Windows includes all the necessary files, including the plugins.

Unzip both tanzu-cli-bundle-windows-amd64clitanzu-framework-plugins-context-windows-amd64.zip and tanzu-cli-bundle-windows-amd64clitanzu-framework-plugins-standalone-windows-amd64.zip. To install the plugins, run the following command:

“`bash

tanzu plugin install –local all

“`

This will install all the plugins, and you’ll still get the error, but you can see that all the plugins are installed and ready to use.

Conclusion

In this blog post, I shared my experiences with certificate issues when using the Tanzu CLI on a Windows machine. By following the official documentation and using the offline method for installing plugins, I was able to overcome these issues. Remember that the Tanzu CLI is a powerful tool for managing your Tanzu Kubernetes clusters, and it’s essential to understand how to use it effectively.

I hope this blog post helps you in your Tanzu journey! If you have any questions or need further assistance, feel free to reach out to me. Happy vRaccooning!