Time to upgrade if you are still running VMware Photon 1.x as VMware will be ending support for this version.
After Feb 28th, 2022, there will be no new Security fixes, package upgrades, bug fixes, or feature enhancements to the Photon 1.x Branch. Therefore, by extension, we will also not be publishing Photon 1.x base Container images to Docker Hub beyond this date.
I tend to keep my systems up to date within 30 to 60 days of a release. The recently released vSphere 7 Update 3a seems to bring features and fixes to VMware vSphere with Tanzu among other things. This is something I am looking forward to updating.
Today, VMware is excited to announce the release of vSphere 7 Update 3a (7 U3a). Last month we announced the availability of vSphere 7 Update 3 (7 U3). 7 U3 introduced the ability for admins to provision GPU based infrastructure which could be declaratively accessed and added as GPU accelerated VMs by developers from their Kubernetes environment. 7 U3a builds on this capability and now allows the newly created VMs to become part of a TKG cluster.
How quickly do you often updates your systems? Do you have a dev environment that you update first? Do you plan on installing this update? Let me know on Twitter and thanks for reading.
VMware has announced vSphere 7 Update 3 to be released in the near future. I suspect the team want to inform the community about the upcoming release, and outline all the new features it contains vs just releasing the update. Almost like when a new album is set to come out and they release singles to get folks excited about it. Yes, I did say albums, google it, if you are unaware what an album is.
According to Glen Simon on the VMware vSphere Blog:
A year and a half ago, we introduced VMware vSphere 7 to help customers deliver AI and developer-ready infrastructure, scale without compromise, and simplify operations. We’ve continued delivering and adding key capabilities in those focus areas over the past two update releases, as well as various minor releases. Today, we’re excited to introduce vSphere 7 Update 3 which continues to enhance the industry’s leading virtualization and workload platform to add more value for customers in these key areas. vSphere 7 Update 3 will be generally available in the near future.
I do like that VMware is building on their three pillars of Deliver AI and Developer-Ready Infrastructure, Scale without Compromise and Simplify Operations. I believe we first saw these in 2019 or 2020 at VMworld, but I think most of you would agree ‘the time distortion’ field is all messed up since COVID.
A few items that I am interested in seeing in action are the following:
I’ll be looking forward to when this release is GA and able to get it into the lab to test it out.
Is update 3 something that you are excited about? Will you be deploying update 3 once it becomes GA? Let me know on Twitter and thank for reading.
VMware has issued a security advisory VMSA-2021-0020. The product impacted with this advisory is vCenter Server 6.5, 6.7 and 7.0. Anyone running a vSphere environment knows how critical vCenter server is to the proper functioning of the virtual environment, so this is an important update to consider applying as soon as possible.
According to Bob Plankers on the VMware vSphere blog:
VMware has released patches that address a new critical security advisory, VMSA-2021-0020. This needs your immediate attention if you are using vCenter Server (if you didn’t get an email about it, please subscribe to our Security Advisories mailing list). In most cases a security advisory is straightforward, but sometimes there are nuances that are worth extra discussion. That is the case here, and the goal of this post is to help you decide your course forward.
This advisory covers many Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE). VMware has confirmed reports that CVE-2021-22005 is being exploited in the wild. This should provide you and your security team some urgency around how quickly you need to apply this update. VMware is considering this an ’emergency change’, and you will want to coordinate this with your change management, security and applications teams.
VMware is offering a patch or workaround method (until you can patch) but in my experience I always go with the patch. I have found other IT admins when working with a workaround will leave it in and forget to come back to remove or update it and when it comes time for a system upgrade, well, things can do sideways.
Always take the steps to inform your management team that a vulnerability exists and you have a plan to address it and include your security team so they are informed and can take additional steps to monitor and observe any unusual behaviour on the network.
Have you already applied the patch? How do you typically handle these types of security advisories? Let me know on Twitter and thanks for readying.
Today VMware made available its Developer Ready Infrastructure VMware Validated Solution (VVS). This differs from a VMware Validated Design (VVD) that many of you may be familiar with. I would almost a day two type of document. Since you already deployed the technology stack, you are now looking for ways to build on the VVD with the VVS.
Jason Shiplett writes on the VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) Blog
Along with the release of VMware Cloud Foundation 4.3, we are excited to announce the general availability of the Developer Ready Infrastructure VMware Validated Solution. The solution documentation, intro and how-to videos, and other associated collateral can be found on the Cloud Platform Tech Zone.
These modules are easy to consume and understand. It’s also a great way to level up your knowledge and skills, even if you don’t plan on deploying the solution outlined in the document. You can use these to think through your current designs and if you were challenged with deploying a particular solution would you be ready. I would use documents like this in my planning session with my virtualization team.
I would also suggest that you proactively review and present these types of documents and solutions to your IT team and management. Let them know that you are thinking through different scenarios. Have a potential blueprint outlined if you may need to deploy something like Tanzu. Your IT management team will look favourably on you for possible future promotions and job role expansion.
I would encourage you to present to your IT team for a year and at the end of that year, I bet you will see the fruits of your effort. Let me know on Twitter if this advice has helps and thanks for reading.