Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2 will be end-of-life on January 14th, 2020. This impacts quite a few folks who may have deployed their vCenter Server for Windows on these Operating Systems. I have been asked quite often recently, “What are my options?” Let’s dive in and find out what it takes to move to a supported OS!

vSphere 6.5 first introduced vCenter HA and since its inception has been deployed in many environments. When it comes to upgrading or updating your vCenter HA environment there are some specific considerations. If you have wondered what it takes to handle the lifecycle of a vCenter HA enabled vCenter Server, keep reading!

vCenter HA Overview

vCenter HA has seen wide adoption as customers wish to provide provide high availability for their vCenter Server. VMware Solutions such as Site Recovery Manager, NSX and Horizon View rely heavily on the availability of the vCenter Server being online, so …

As more customers get ready to run the vCenter Server Converge Tool in their environments, a common question that has been asked is “What Happens to my Certificates?” Well that is a good question so lets find out!

I am proud to announce that my first VMware Clarity Project the VCSA JSON Creator is now live! This has been something I have wanted to do for some time, and am glad to finally have the first version available for feedback. Let’s dive in and take a look.

vSphere 6.7 Update 2 is now available! Inside this update include enhancements to the vCenter Server Converge Tool. Let’s dive in and take a look at whats new and see how to converge a deployment using the new UI.

Previously I covered how to use the VCSA Installer to do a scripted upgrade and then I covered Patching the vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) using the REST API - Part 1 (Postman Collection) However, after learning recently how to call API’s from Powershell I thought to myself, why not write a Powershell Module for this?

Introduction

Using tools such as Postman can make it utilizing API’s a bit easier, but you still need to be familiar with a separate tool or UI. I was able to develop my own version and build my first Powershell Module that you can use to patch the VCSA in a simple …

I am a huge fan of Automating the vSphere Lifecycle process. The next step I wanted to cover was patching the vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) using the REST API.

The first topic we will cover in our Automating your vSphere Upgrade series is updating our core infrastructure. Upgrading Platform Services Controller(PSC)  and vCenter Server via the CLI installer. In our workshops one of the common things I hear is that most folks aren’t using the CLI based tools that have been included in the installer. I am a huge fan of these as they make migrations and upgrades seamless–especially when having to perform the task if you have multiple PSC’s and vCenter Servers. Using the CLI tools don’t have to be intimidating, as we go through this blog …

On May 22nd we released the first update to our vCenter Server 6.7 version, 6.7a. I will let you know how you can patch your 6.7 GA vCenter Server to 6.7a.

It’s finally out! vSphere 6.7 is the next major release of VMware’s virtualization software. I’ve been using 6.7 through the vSphere Beta Program and testing even newer features in my current role. I am here to talk to you about planning your vSphere upgrade and some planning and considerations you should have when going to the latest release.

The first, thing I would like to mention is there is no supported migration from vSphere 5.x to 6.7. You must be running vSphere 6.0 or 6.5.