VMware's new Virtual Technical Advisor (VTA) Service

Anyone familiar with VMware's Technical Account Manager (TAM) services knows the benefits to having such a resource as your advocate. Our customers gave TAM services a Net Promotor Score (NPS) of 67.5%, which is incredibly high for such a paid service. We're in an age where great software paired with great services is the best way to squeeze the most value out of your investments. Adopting new technologies, embracing the Cloud, exploring hyper converged infrastructure can be daunting tasks. VMware wants you to be confident in your endeavors and that's where the Technical Account Manager and Virtual Technical Advisor services come in!

TAM has been around the block for quite a while, however it has often been out of scope or financial reach for most smaller IT organizations. The thought of a VMware rep in regular weekly cadence was a nice thought, but often out of reach due to financial constraints.

Introducing VTA Services

VMware Virtual Technical Advisor (VTA) Services is a new offering for mid-market customers seeking a trusted advisor with the expertise and tools focused on your operational maturity. Designed specifically for smaller IT organizations, VTA services extends the reach of TAM services in an entirely new way.

Unlike the TAM who is local to your business and available to be onsite regularly, the VTA is a remote offering that adopts Enterprise Social Networks (ESN) to promote collaboration and consistent communication with you and your team. The VTA service allows one onsite visit per year, and encourages bi-weekly cadence meetings to ensure ongoing alignment with your business goals.

Per the VTA Service Overview, a Virtual Technical Advisor:

• Is focused on achieving your IT outcomes


• Documents your virtual infrastructure


• Recommends Technical Improvement Plans based on environmental analysis


• Helps you transition your IT operations from reactive to proactive


• Supports your team in maintaining a stable, operationally efficient VMware environment


• Enables smooth transitions to new VMware technologies


• Is available directly via email, phone, and Instant Messaging

All of this and more comes at a price point reachable by most mid-market customers. If your organization falls under the category of mid-market business and a VTA sounds right for you, reach out to your VMware Rep, Sales Partner, or learn more at at VMware's website.

 

 

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Horizon Client 4.0.1 Now Available!

What's New in This Release (Check out the Release Notes Here) for Mac

4.0.1 enables TLSv1.0 by default. All other new 4.x features are below:

• Enabling TLSv1.0 ensures that by default Horizon Client can connect to VMware Horizon Air servers. You do not need to upgrade to Horizon Client 4.0.1 unless you use Horizon Client to connect to Horizon Air cloud-hosted desktops and applications. New Features in Horizon Client 4.0 • VMware Blast Extreme


• End-users can select the VMware Blast display protocol when they connect to a remote desktop or application in Horizon Client, and they can configure decoding and network protocol options for VMware Blast sessions. Administrators can create vmware-view URIs to launch a remote desktop or application with the VMware Blast display protocol. This feature also requires Horizon Agent 7.0.


• Client drive redirection feature enhancements 


• You can now open local files with remote applications directly from your local file system and you can run remote applications directly from your Applications folder.


• SSLv3 is removed.


• Multiple monitors in different modes 


• When you have multiple monitors, you can use the Window > Use Single Display in Full Screen option to make a remote desktop fill only one monitor. With this option, the monitors do not have to be in the same mode. For example, if you are using a laptop connected to an external monitor, the external monitor can be in portrait mode or landscape mode.


• OS X El Capitan (10.11) Split View support


• With Split View in OS X El Capitan, you can fill your Mac screen with two applications without having to manually move and resize windows. You can use Split View with remote desktops in full-screen mode (Full Screen or Use Single Display in Full Screen option).


• Configure Horizon Client to forget server user name and domain information


• By default, Horizon Client stores the user name and domain that you enter when you log in to a server to connect to a remote desktop or application. For increased security, you can configure Horizon Client to never remember the server user name and domain.


• OpenSSL 1.0.2f support


• The OpenSSL library is updated to version openssl-1.0.2f.


• Support discontinued for Mac OS X 10.8 as a client operating system


• Horizon Client for Mac OS X 4.0 must be installed on Mac OS X 10.9, 10.10, or 10.11.

Installing the New Horizon view Client on your Mac

1. Download the new client from vmware.com/downloads
   


2. Double Click the DMG file, and drag the Icon to the Applications Folder
   


3. Be sure to Replace any previous instances of the Client
   


4. Launch the Client and ensure the About section reflects the new version
   

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New Release Menu 3.31

Don't like that pesky CVE-2015-7547 vulnerability, also known as glibc? Neither do we!

VMware vCenter Server 5.5. Update 3c (March 29)
This release of vCenter Server 5.5 Update 3c addresses the glibc security vulnerability

VMware vCenter Server 5.0 Update 3f (March 29)
This release of vCenter Server 5.0 Update 3f addresses the glibc security vulnerability

VMware vCenter Server 5.1 Update 3c (March 29)
This release of vCenter Server 5.1 Update 3c addresses the glibc security vulnerability

VMware vSphere Replication 6.1.0.1 Express Patch (March 29)
This patch release addresses the glibc security vulnerability

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Upgrading a Horizon View Environment

The below links assume a Horizon 5.x environment. The same general process should be followed for Horizon 6 using the appropriate documentation.

Some prerequisites that I would highly recommend before performing any actual upgrades are:

1)      Perform an end-to-end backup of your environment (kb.vmware.com/kb/1008046)
2)      Review the Network Port Requirements for View: (kb.vmware.com/kb/1027217) // Be sure to also review the network section of the install guide for any new ports that might have changed in the target version of View.

In a VMware View environment, your order of operations for a complete upgrade will likely look similar to this (with page references in the View Upgrade Guide below):

1. Connection Server / Security Server (page 34 / 39)
2. vCenter / Update Manager / Composer (page 40 / 25)
3. Hosts (page 45)
4. VMware Tools / Virtual Machine Hardware (page 46)
5. View Agents (page 47)
6. View Client (page 51)
7. Distributed Switches and Datastores (found in vSphere Networking Guide, page 28 and vSphere Storage Guide page 143, respectively)

Documentation for Reference:

VMware View Upgrade Guide (5.2/5.3 shared the same docs)
http://pubs.vmware.com/view-52/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/horizon-view-52-upgrades.pdf

Horizon View 5.3.5 Release Notes
https://pubs.vmware.com/Release_Notes/en/horizon-view/horizon-view-535-release-notes.html

Keeping a vSphere environment up to date (generic order of events)
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2004807

vSphere Upgrade Guide (for vCenter, VUM, and ESXi)
http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-55/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-552-upgrade-guide.pdf

vSphere Networking Guide
http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-55/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-552-networking-guide.pdf

vSphere Storage Guide
http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-55/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-552-storage-guide.pdf

For a complete list of VMware Horizon View Documents, Best Practices, and Notes, please bookmark the Documentation Center link here:
https://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/view_pubs.html

I hope you've found this post helpful! Let me know in the comments. Good luck!

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Understanding Authentication in vRealize Operations

// This is a guest post by Jeremy (@nakedhitman)

vRealize Operations offers a number of options for user authentication and permission management, but does not do a great job describing the differences between them and why you should care. Most of the options are fairly easy to understand, but the vCenter authentication source is special and can easily cause confusion. Let's break them down and run through the differences:

• Local Shell Users
  
  
  
  • Example: root
  
  
  • These user accounts can not log in or be imported into the application UI.
  
  
  • They can log in to the shell of the system via SSH or VM console.
  
  
  
  


• Local Application Users
  
  
  
  • Example: admin, maintenanceAdmin, automationAdmin
  
  
  • They can not log in to the shell of the system via SSH or VM console.
  
  
  • The full range of permissions can be granted to local users.
  
  
  
  


• Active Directory / LDAP
  
  
  
  • Example: youruser@yourdomain.tld, yourdomain\otheruser
  
  
  • They can not log in to the shell of the system via SSH or VM console.
  
  
  • Technically, AD and LDAP are the same technology, but with different presets. These sources allow users and groups to be imported from a domain so that they can log in with their common credentials.
  
  
  • The full range of vRealize Operations permissions can be granted to imported AD/LDAP users and groups.
  
  
  
  


• SSO SAML
  
  
  
  • Example: administrator@vsphere.local, youruser@yourdomain.tld, yourdomain\otheruser
  
  
  • They can not log in to the shell of the system via SSH or VM console.
  
  
  • Similarly to the AD/LDAP source, importing users from SSO allows you to assign vRealize Operations roles to domain users and groups. The advantage of using the SSO source is that if you have a complex domain configuration, you can use the existing configuration from SSO without having to re-implement your domain delegation and bindings in vRealize Operations.
  
  
  • The full range of vRealize Operations permissions can be granted to imported SSO users and groups.
  
  
  
  


• vCenter
  
  
  
  • Example: administrator@vsphere.local, youruser@yourdomain.tld, yourdomain\otheruser
  
  
  • They can not log in to the shell of the system via SSH or VM console.
  
  
  • Users from this source are not imported in the traditional sense and vRealize Operations simply trusts the vCenter when it says that a user has permission to log in and see objects.
  
  
  • Because vCenter is responsible for assigning permissions, and because vCenter can only ever be aware of objects in its own inventory, it cannot grant permission to view or modify objects that are internal to vRealize Operations, nor to data that comes in to vROps from other sources.
  
  
  • The vRealize Operations roles cannot be modified or expanded for users that come from the vCenter source from the vRealize Operations side.
  
  
  • vCenter users are unable to create and schedule reports in vROps.
  
  
  
  

The vCenter authentication source is enabled automatically when vCenters are registered and is one of the options for authentication on the vRealize Operations login screen. This causes a great deal of confusion for many users that are using their domain credentials and can log in without issues, yet cannot perform various tasks despite being an "administrator" in the vCenter and/or domain.

Even in situations where "real" authentication sources are configured properly, the vCenter authentication source may still cause confusion since it can present itself as the default, allowing domain users to log in with partial permissions if they are not paying close enough attention. Unfortunately, there is no way to disable the vCenter authentication source, nor to change the default, so you must make an effort to educate your users about the differences and to use the appropriate source when logging in.

Hopefully, this clarifies the differences between the authentication sources and allows you to choose the one that best suits your needs. If any of the above is unclear, please drop me a line in the comments. Thanks for stopping by!

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VMware Product Walkthroughs

NSX.. EVO:RAIL.. Virtual SAN.. ever wish you could have a simple one-stop-shop for learning about the latest virtualization technologies? A place to answer the questions of "Why does this exist" and "How can this help me" or "If I were interested, what would this cost me?"

Enter Product Walkthroughs.



VMware's Product Walkthroughs site is a publicly available resource for answering those questions. The best part is the site not only covers basic product overview, but it drills down into feature sets too. Try utilizing the Search bar or browse the Trending topics to see additional topics like understanding vROPs Forecasting Capacity, or Restoring a virtual machine with vSphere Data Protection, or learning more about the ESXi Firewall.

Remember to share with your friends! Enjoy!

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New Release Menu Dec 21st

Christmas has come early! Buckle up.. because there's been a host of new releases from VMware over the past two weeks.

Below you'll find their release date and links to release notes for each release. I hope you find this helpful!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
- Ryan

 

vRealize
vRealize Orchestrator Plug-in for SRM 6.1 6.1.0a (Dec. 18^th)
vRealize Orchestrator Plug-in for SRM 6.0 6.0.0.1a (Dec 18^th)
vRealize Operations for Horizon 6.2.0 (Dec. 8th)
vRealize Operations for Published Applications 6.2.0 (Dec. 8th)
vRealize Code Stream Management Pack for IT DevOps 1.0 (Dec. 8th)
vRealize Orchestrator Plug-in for VR-A 7.0.0 (Dec. 17th)
VMware vRealize Business Adv/Ent 8.2.4 (Dec. 17th)
VMware vRealize Business Standard 7.0.0 (Dec. 17th)
VMware vRealize Orchestrator 7.0.0 (Dec. 17th)
VMware vRealize Automation 7.0.0 (Dec. 17th)
VMware Software manager - Download Service 1.3 (Dec. 8th)
VMware vSphere Big Data Extensions 2.3.0 (Dec. 8th)

EUC
VMware Fusion 8.1.0 EUC (Dec. 8th)
VMware Workstation 12.1 EUC (Dec. 8th)
VMware Mirage 5.6 EUC (Dec. 8th)
VMware FLEX 1.7 EUC (Dec. 8th)
VMware Horizon View 6.2.1 EUC (Dec. 8th)
VMware Horizon for Linux 6.2.1 EUC (Dec. 8th)

CSBU
VMware Continuent for Clustering 5.0 (Dec. 9th)
VMware Continuent for Replication 5.0 (Dec. 9th)
VMware Continuent for Analytics and Big Data 5.0 (Dec. 9th)
VMware Continuent for Disaster Recovery 5.0 (Dec. 9th)

Infra / Core
vCloud Director for Service Providers 5.6.5 (Dec. 10th)
VMware Integrated OpenStack 2.0.1 (Dec. 10th)
VMware NSX for vSphere 6.2.1 (Dec. 17th)
VMware vSphere Hypervisor 5.5.0 P07 Infrastructure (Dec. 8th)
VMware vCenter Server 5.5.0 u3b Infrastructure (Dec. 8th)

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