My IT Blog

Introduction:   Broadcom’s recent acquisition of VMware for $61 billion marks a significant milestone in the tech industry. This merger is set to reshape the landscape of cloud computing, bringing together Broadcom’s hardware prowess and VMware’s software expertise. In this post, we will delve into the details of the acquisition, its impact on VMware’s product line, and the broader implications for cloud computing. Background of the Acquisition:  The acquisition deal, announced in May 2022, is one of the largest in the tech sector. Broadcom, known for its semiconductor and infrastructure software solutions, has strategically acquired VMware to enhance its software portfolio. This move follows Broadcom’s previous acquisitions of CA Technologies and Symantec’s enterprise security business, highlighting its aggressive expansion strategy. Impact on VMware’s Product Line :  VMware’s core products, including vSphere, vSAN, NSX, and VMware Cloud Foundation, are expected to see s...

This blog post provides the high level design for implementing the Native AWS Backup to protect the VMware Workloads hosted on VMware Cloud on AWS.  VMware Cloud on AWS VMware Cloud on AWS enables customers to deploy the SDDC and consume vSphere workloads as a managed service on AWS global infrastructure. VMC is a jointly engineered solution by VMware and AWS that provides customers with a true hybrid cloud experience. As customers continue to adopt VMware Cloud on AWS, data protection for the VMs and workloads hosted on the VMC SDDC is becoming increasingly important. Customers should also be able to comply with data regulations and manage backup costs effectively. This post will go over the design considerations and best practices for enabling Native AWS Backup for VMs hosted on VMC SDDC. We'll go over different architecture design options and use cases that address customer needs. AWS Backup for VMware We can centrally protect our VMware workloads hosted on VMC SDDC thanks to A...

 VMware ON AWS Deployment - Requirements.  As mentioned in the previous post , when we are set with the project objective, we need to prepare the items mentioned in the VMC deployment checklist. Some of the basic requirements are,  The AWS account details - When we deploy our SDDC on VMware Cloud on AWS, it is created within an AWS account and a VPC dedicated to your organisation and managed by VMware. We must also connect the SDDC to an AWS account belonging to us, called the customer AWS account . This connection allows our SDDC to access AWS services belonging to our org  account. SDDC Management subnets - This is the most critical part of the deployment. Choosing the right network for SDDC and connect back to ON-Premise network (check with network team to make sure you provide unique range of CIDR, ASN etc to avoid conflicts)  Connectivity to On-Premise DC and VMC - There are different ways to connect to the On-Prem DC, using IPsec VPN, AWS Direct Connect...

In our previous posts , we saw the option to deploy the VCH using CLI utility, vSphere client etc. In this post, we see an option to automate the VCH deployment using vRealize Automation ( vRA) Background:  The current automated world requires the seamless and fastest deployment of its infrastructure. VMware vSphere Integrated Containers gives developers an essential tool for streamlining the process of building and running containerized applications in production.  The deployment of VCH is done through various methods as we see in our previous posts. But in this post, we are going to see how to automate the VCH deployment and the first VCH in few mouse clicks. By using the service catalog in vRealize Automation to provision Virtual Container Hosts on-demand as a ticketless offer, you can make your developers self-sufficient. The vRealize Automation 7.4 and later versions support provisioning and management of Virtual Container Hosts(VCH) for running vSphere Integrated...

Virtual Container Host Deployment using the "vic-machine" Utility - VMware Integrated Containers In our previous posts , we saw the steps to deploy VIC appliance and deploying the VCH from vSphere client. In this post, we will see the steps to deploy the VCH using the "vic-machine" CLI Utility  Refernce: https://github.com/rdjagadeesh/vic_homelab/ Once we deploy the vSphere Integrated Containers (VIC) appliance, access the VIC appliance IP from the browser and we land on the below page. From this page, we can download the vSphere Integrated Containers Engine bundle from the appliance and unpack it on the workstation/laptop/ jump host where we connect to our vSphere environment. Unpack the downloaded bundle  The bundle included the following contents and utilities   The VIC bundle includes the vic-machine CLI utility. We use "vic-machine" to deploy and manage virtual container hosts (VCHs) at the command line. Procedure:  ...

In this post we see the options to deploy the Virtual Container Hosts ( VCH) Ref:  https://github.com/rdjagadeesh/vic_homelab/ The previous post talks about vSphere Integrated Containers and their benefits. The VIC offers a robust solution that enables the vSphere environment to quickly get containers up and running in their current vSphere infrastructure. This environment can be useful for migrating current apps to containers or for in-house development. Architecture In a traditional container environment, containers run as threads within the container host. vSphere Integrated Containers leverage the native constructs of vSphere for provisioning container-based applications into its own container running its own very minimal Linux kernel with just enough code to run a Docker image, thus preventing any issue with containers being accessed from other containers by pushing isolation of the container down to the hypervisor layer that is much better at handling this type ...

vRealize Automation Installation Overview You can install vRealize Automation to support minimal, proof of concept environments, or in different sizes of distributed, enterprise configurations that are capable of handling production workloads. Installation can be interactive or silent. After installation, you start using vRealize Automation by customizing your setup and configuring tenants, which provides users with access to self-service provisioning and life-cycle management of cloud services New in this vRealize Automation Installation: If you installed earlier versions of vRealize Automation, be aware of changes in the installation process for this release.  This release simplifies the vRealize Automation appliance node removal process.  The vRealize Automation appliance administration interface has changed.  Database tab features have moved to the Cluster tab. The Database tab has been removed, and the Cluster tab has beco...