A purple screen on an ESXi host creates an immediate operational problem, but the bigger risk is what happens next. The first reaction is usually to get the host back online. That is understandable, especially when workloads are down, HA is recovering virtual machines, or a cluster is running hot after losing capacity. But if … Read more
A full /storage/log partition on a vCenter Server Appliance is not just a housekeeping problem. It is a management-plane risk. In a standalone vSphere environment, it can interrupt administration, log collection, patching, and service stability. In VMware Cloud Foundation, the blast radius is larger because vCenter is tied into SDDC Manager workflows, workload domain lifecycle … Read more
Certificate changes in vSphere environments rarely fail in only one place. The obvious place to look is the browser warning, the expired certificate alarm, or the service that recently had its Machine SSL certificate replaced. But in production VMware Cloud Foundation and vSphere environments, certificate changes can also break something less visible: the extension and … Read more
VLAN issues in VMware environments are rarely caused by one mysterious setting. More often, they come from a translation problem. The network team thinks in terms of access ports, trunks, allowed VLAN lists, native VLANs, port channels, and upstream gateways. The virtualization team thinks in terms of vSwitches, distributed port groups, VMkernel adapters, VM network … Read more
Virtual machine network problems rarely arrive with a clean label. The ticket usually says something like “the VM is unreachable,” “the application cannot connect,” “ping fails,” “internet access is down,” or “VMs on different hosts cannot talk.” The underlying cause might be inside the guest OS, on the VM’s virtual NIC, in the port group, … Read more
VMware Cloud Foundation 9.1 is not the kind of upgrade you should treat as a last-minute lifecycle task. For many customers, the move to VCF 9.1 is also a shift in operating model, lifecycle sequencing, management services, resource planning, and cross-team readiness. That is why the new VCF 9.1 Upgrade Planning Tool matters. VMware’s announcement … Read more
TL;DR Architecture Diagram Table of Contents Scope and terminology guardrails You will move faster as an organization if you treat these as non-negotiable guardrails: For topology conversations, you also need consistent physical vocabulary: Assumptions Decision criteria Use these criteria to keep topology and identity debates grounded in operational outcomes: Challenge You need a topology and … Read more
TL;DR If you want architects, operators, and leadership aligned, you need a topology mental model that starts with VCF objects and only then maps to your physical sites. Architecture Diagram Table of Contents Scenario You are about to deploy VCF 9.0 GA greenfield and you need a shared language for: Scope and version alignment This … Read more
TL;DR Architecture Diagram Table of Contents Scope and Code Levels This article is written against VCF 9.0 GA terminology and design guidance. Version Compatibility Matrix Use this as your “shared truth” when people ask “what exactly are we talking about?” Component Version Build VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 24755599 VCF Installer 9.0.1.0 24962180 ESX 9.0.0.0 24755229 … Read more
TL;DR If you want clean accountability in VCF 9.0, anchor your operating model to the official hierarchy: VCF private cloud -> VCF fleet -> VCF instance -> VCF domain -> vSphere clusters. This post translates that hierarchy into an operating model: who owns what, where day-0/day-1/day-2 work happens, and how topology (single site vs two … Read more
TL;DR Standardize on the official hierarchy: VCF private cloud -> VCF fleet -> VCF instance -> VCF domain -> vSphere clusters. A VCF fleet is managed by one set of fleet-level management components (notably VCF Operations and VCF Automation), while each VCF instance keeps its own management domain and domain-level control planes. Your fastest path … Read more
TL;DR If you want alignment fast, standardize on this hierarchy and ownership split: Architecture Diagram Table of Contents Scenario You need architects, operations, and leadership to answer the same questions the same way: If you do not standardize vocabulary, you end up with: Series map This topic is usually too big for one post, so … Read more
