Tag: VMware

VMware vExpert

VMware vExpert 2020

Constantin Ghioc Leave a comment

VMware just announced the list of 2020 vExperts and I am honored to be nominated for the third time!

For 2020, VMware awarded this title to over 1700 persons from over 40 countries. I’m glad that my country, Romania, has 3 more friends on this list: Razvan Ionescu, Aylin Sali and Michael Stoica. I feel that more of the people involved in the VMware community from Romania should set a target for themselves to be nominated next year (some of them should start with a Twitter account, hint!). If you need more information about the program, feel free to send me a message. For my Romanian friends: you may find more details about being a vExpert from a presentation I did for Romanian VMUG some time ago (first video recording from VMUG Romania October Meeting Report starting around the 6th minute).

For those still unfamiliar with the benefits of the program, I will list the ones that strike me as most important:

  • recognition both from VMware and from community to personal “significant contributions to the community and a willingness to share their expertise with others”
  • access to vExpert Slack channel – I would say this is a treasure judging by the persons around and the quality of their posts. Think at this as a personal Twitter on steroids 🙂
  • VMware software licenses for home labs – virtually all VMware products can be tried with 1 year licenses with enough capacity for a decent home lab
  • exclusive opportunities for vExperts – webinars, VMworld events, access to beta programs
  • not for resale licenses from other vendors from VMware environment

For the comprehensive list of 2020 vExperts, you can visit the dedicated directory at vexpert.vmware.com/directory.

Congratulations to all new and renew vExperts!

VMware Security Advisory

VMware ESXi and Horizon DaaS Security Updates – VMSA-2019-0022

Constantin Ghioc Leave a comment

VMware has released a new security advisory VMSA-2019-0022 (VMware ESXi and Horizon DaaS updates address OpenSLP remote code execution vulnerability). Patches and workarounds are available to address this vulnerability in affected VMware products.

This advisory documents the remediation of one issue, rated with a severity of critical. VMware ESXi and Horizon DaaS use an OpenSLP version which has a heap overwrite issue. Successful exploitation of this issue may allow attackers with network access to port 427 on an ESXI host or on any Horizon DaaS management appliance to overwrite the heap of the OpenSLP service resulting in remote code execution.

The identifier CVE-2019-5544 was assigned to this vulnerability.

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VMware vExpert

VMware vExpert 2018

Constantin Ghioc Leave a comment

The results for VMware vExpert 2018 program are finally in and I’m so glad to let you know that I have been accepted! There is always a first time and now it is for me. It is a great honor to be part of this vExpert community I heard about so much in the last years. I am looking at the vExpert names, there are people I follow for many years and I’m wondering what am I doing here? It remains to be seen.

So, what is this VMware vExpert program about? I will let one of the main persons behind it to explain:

“Each year, we bring together in the vExpert Program the people who have made some of the most important contributions to the VMware community. These are the bloggers, book authors, VMUG leaders, speakers, tool builders, community leaders and general enthusiasts. They work as IT admins and architects for VMware customers, they act as trusted advisors and implementors for VMware partners or as independent consultants, and some work for VMware itself. All of them have the passion and enthusiasm for technology and applying technology to solve problems. They have contributed to the success of us all by sharing their knowledge and expertise over their days, nights, and weekends.” – Corey Romero

So far, the community gave me and the other first-timers a warm welcome. I want to express a special thank you to Ariel Sanchez for the “unofficial welcoming tips pack”!

You can check the entire list of vExperts in the official Directory. 67 countries have representatives in the vExpert community, and I’m happy I helped to place Romania on the map! I hope next year we will see more Romanians around!

Congratulations to all vExperts out there!

How to Install VCSA 6.5 (VMware vCenter Server Appliance)

Constantin Ghioc Leave a comment

In this article I will show you how to install VCSA 6.5 (VMware vCenter Server Appliance).

To start, you need an installation kit of vCenter Server Appliance 6.5. For this article, I will use the VCSA version I downloaded from my VMUG Advantage account (VMware-VCSA-all-6.5.0-5318154.iso).

Note: If you look for VCSA update instructions, check this article: How to Update vCenter Server Appliance to 6.5 Update 1b.

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How to Install VMware vSphere 6.5

Constantin Ghioc Leave a comment

In this article I will show you how to install VMware vSphere 6.5.

To start, you need an installation kit of vSphere 6.5. For this article, I will use the vSphere version I downloaded from my VMUG Advantage account (VMware-VMvisor-Installer-201704001-5310538.x86_64.iso).

You need to boot from the image you downloaded. This operation highly depends on the medium and the maker of the system where you are going to install vSphere, so I will not go into specifics. For example, I will install vSphere into a virtual machine (a configuration unsupported by VMware, but often seen in home labs), so I will just mount the iso file into the cd drive and power on the VM.

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VMworld US 2017 – VMware Cloud on AWS Recommended Sessions

Constantin Ghioc Leave a comment

VMworldI previously wrote about my recommendations on vRealize Automation sessions at VMworld US 2017, now it’s time for the en-vogue product everyone is willing to try called VMware Cloud on AWS.

VMware Cloud on AWS is scheduled to be general available this summer, so as expected there are plenty of breakout sessions to choose from. VMware announced the product last year at VMworld Europe and I remember how all the formerly secret sessions suddenly were “sold out”. I attended a session led by Frank Denneman (you will see two of his sessions listed below) and I was super impressed by his enthusiasm. Former Senior Technical Marketing Architect at VMware, specialized in DRS, vMotion and Fault Tolerance, he joined few years PernixData (up to Chief Technologist), to come back late 2016 at VMware to work on an unknown technology. He did signed up on blanc, without knowing what is this about. That technology was indeed VMware Cloud on AWS. Since last VMworld, we have seen demos and found more data on the product, but I’m really waiting for this year sessions and to finally have some hands on with the product.

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Win Free Ticket to VMworld 2018 – by VMUG

Constantin Ghioc Leave a comment

VMUGVMUG just announced a giveaway of a free ticket to VMworld 2018!

Starting Monday 7th August 2017, VMUG will post on their Twitter account @myvmug a weekly clue: they will let us know where to find a certain content which we should re-tweet. Each tweet must include @myvmug and must contain the #VMUGOLDENTICKET hashtag. Hurry up, you should re-tweet in less than 24 hours after their post!

The winner may choose the venue, either US either Europe.

The contest ends August 27th at midnight and VMUG will announce the winner August 28th.

Stay tuned #VMUGOLDENTICKET!