Episode 100, YESSSS! Finally, we managed to get there. For this episode, I invited two Google Cloud VMware Engine (GCVE) product managers to explain what GCVE is all about. We had Dr. Wade Holmes on the show, 84 episodes ago, to introduce GCVE, so it was time to re-introduce GCVE and discuss the current solution, and the benefits it brings with for instance the flexibility in node types, bring your own licensing, disaster recovery, networking, and much more. Ken and Sai had some interesting stories, so make sure to pay close attention! Listen via the embedded player below, or simply go to your favorite podcast player and find the episode there! (Spotify, Apple)
Where is the vSAN Snapmanager Appliance with 9.0?
I was talking to my colleague Paudie and he mentioned various folks were having problems finding the vSAN Snapmanager Appliance for vSAN / VCF / vSphere 9.0. The appliance used to be stored on the Broadcom Support portal under VMware vSAN >> Drivers & Tools, but it is no longer there.
This is not by mistake. Some may have heard about this, others may have skipped over it, but VMware Live Recovery, vSphere Replication, and vSAN Data Protection (which includes the Snapmanager Appliance) have all converged into a single appliance to make your life easier! This means that if you want to enable vSAN Data Protection, you now need to download the VMware Live Recovery Appliance, specifically version 9.0.3.0 or later.
My favorite VMware Explore 2025 sessions!
Yes, it is that time of the year again… VMware Explore season! As I write this, I am in the middle of developing the content for Explore, as I have two sessions approved myself. I created a so-called targeted agenda, so if you want to attend any of the below sessions, just go here.
The two sessions I am presenting can be found here. But for those who don’t want to click, they are:
- Three Times the Performance, Half the Latency: VMware vSAN Express Storage Architecture Deep Dive for VMware Geeks [CLOB1067LV] Featuring Pete Koehler and Duncan Epping
- Six Innovations Redefining Storage and Disaster Recovery for VMware Cloud Foundation [CLOB1028LV] Featuring Rakesh Radhakrishnan and Duncan Epping
If you are attending Explore, and are planning on attending those sessions, make sure to register as soon as you can as they were “sold out” in previous years!
Now, for the rest of the content catalog, these are the sessions I hope to be able to attend:
- Deploying Minimal VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 Lab [CLOB1201LV] hosted by Alan Renouf and William Lam
- The Isolated Clean Room Blueprint for On-Premises Based Cyber Recoveries [CLOB1267LV] hosted by Michael McLaughlin
- A Deep Dive into Memory Tiering with NVMe [CLOB1122LV] hosted by Dave Morera
- Bridging the Gap: Managing Virtual Machines in a Kubernetes World [CLOB1938LV] hosted by Kat Brookfield
- Design and Architect: Multi-cluster Management for Kubernetes at Scale with VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 [CLOB1471LV] hosted by Kris Inglis and Hugo Phan
- 10 Amazing New Things with VMware Live Recovery [CLOB1943LV] hosted by Jatin Jindal and Nabil Quadri
- Building Secure Private AI Deep Dive [INVB1432LV] hosted by Chris McCain
- 5 Key Capabilities of Next-Gen Data Protection and Ransomware Recovery with vSAN for All VCF Workloads [CLOB1265LV] hosted by Rakesh Radhakrishnan and Sazzala Reddy
- Design and Architect: Best Practices for Deploying VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 [CLOB1427LV] hosted by Prak Kalra and Sushil Suvarna
- Design and Architect: Managing and Operating at Scale with VCF 9.0 [CLOB1487LV] hosted by Ivaylo Ivanov and Michael Kolos
- Real-World Lessons in Rightsizing VMware Cloud Foundation for On-Premises AI Workloads [INVB1300LV] hosted by Frank Denneman and Johan van Amersfoort
If you feel that a session is missing, feel free to leave a comment!
vSAN Stretched Cluster Site Maintenance Mode, where is it??
I had a question from a customer earlier who wanted to test the vSAN Stretched Cluster functionality that was introduced in 9.0 called Site Maintenance. Yes it is indeed what you would expect it to be, a new feature that allows you to place a whole site into maintenance mode at once. Very useful, but this customer was unable to find the button in the UI. Which, by the way, is not strange, as this capability (along with the Manual Site Takeover) capability is only available through an RPQ request at the moment, and it is also only available for vSAN OSA for now, so keep that in mind when filing an RPQ through your Broadcom/VMware contact! When you get approved, you will be informed on how you can get this functionality enabled, and then it will be added in the UI on the fault domain level as shown in the screenshot below, taken from my 9.0 lab!
#099 – Introducing vSAN 9.0 featuring Pete Koehler
VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 was recently launched, and that means vSAN 9.0 is also available. There are many new features introduced in 9.0, so a perfect time to ask Pete Koehler to join the podcast once again and go over some of these key enhancements. Below, you can find the links we discussed during the episode, as well as the embedded player to listen to the episode. Alternatively, you can also listen to the episode via Spotify, Apple, or any other podcast app you may use. Make sure to like and subscribe!