Category: modern apps

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vSphere with Kubernetes

What’s new in v7U1?

VMware will release vSphere 7 Update 1 shortly. Once update 1 is released users will be able to run Kubernetes workloads natively on vSphere. So far that was only possible for installations with VMware Cloud Foundation 4 (VCF). Beginning with update 1 there will be two kinds of Kubernetes on vSphere:

  • VCF with Tanzu
  • vSphere with Tanzu

VCF offers the full stack but has some constraints regarding your choices. For example VCF requires vSAN as storage and NSX-T networking. NSX-T offers loadbalancer functionality for the supervisor cluster and Tanzu Kubernetes Grid (TKG). Additionally it provides overlay networks for PodVMs. These are container pods that can run on the hypervisor by means of a micro-VM.

In contrast to VCF with Tanzu, vSphere with Tanzu has less constraints. There’s no requirement to utilize vSAN as storage layer and also NSX-T is optional. Networking can be done with normal distributed switches (vDS). It’s possible to use HA-proxy as loadbalancer for supervisor control plane API and TKG cluster API. The downside of this freedom comes with reduced functionality. Without NSX-T it is not possible to run PodVMs. Without PodVMs you cannot use Harbor Image Registry, which relies on PodVMs. In other words: if you want to use Harbor Image Registry together with vSphere with Tanzu, you have to deploy NSX-T.

VCF with TanzuvSphere with Tanzu
NSX-Trequiredoptional, vDS
vSANrequiredoptional
PodVMsyesonly with NSX-T
Harbor Registryyesonly with PodVM, NSX-T
LoadbalancerNSX-THA-proxy
CNICalicoAntrea or Calico
Overlay NWNSX-T–

Tanzu Editions

In the future there will be 4 editions of vSphere with Tanzu:

  • Tanzu Basic – Run basic Kubernetes-clusters in vSphere. Available as license bundle together with vSphere7 EnterprisePlus.
  • Tanzu Standard – Same as Tanzu Basic but with multi cloud support. Addon license for vSphere7 or VCF.
  • Tanzu Advanced – Available later.
  • Tanzu Enterprise – Available later.

Links

vSphere Blog – What’s New with VMware vSphere 7 Update 1

vSphere Blog – Announcing VMware vSphere with Tanzu

Cormac Hogan – Getting started with vSphere with Tanzu

VMware Tanzu – Simplify Your Approach to Application Modernization with 4 Simple Editions for the Tanzu Portfolio

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Announcement of VMware Cloud Foundation 4.1

Together with vSphere7 and vSAN7, VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 4.0 with Tanzu was released in March this year. Now VMware has announced VMware Cloud Foundation 4.1 along with vSphere 7.0 Update1 and vSAN 7 U1, which builds on some of the new features of vSAN.

What’s new?

  • vSAN Data Persistence Platform – This is an important feature for manufacturers of virtual appliances and container solutions that run on vSAN or VCF. Not all Container workloads are stateless. Some of them like object storage or NoSQL are stateful applications. Until now, separate replication mechanisms by the application were necessary. With vSAN Persistence Platform the providers are able to directly use the high availability of vSAN. First providers are for example MinIO, DataStax, Dell EMC ObjectScale or Cloudian.
  • VMware Cloud Foundation Remote Clusters – A feature based on vSAN HCI Mesh. With this feature vSAN Datastores of other clusters can be integrated. This is especially interesting for remote locations.
  • vVols in workload domains – Now you can deploy workload domains on vVol enabled storage. Supported protocols are FC, iSCSI and NFS.
  • Automatic deployment of vRealize Suite 8.1 – vRealize Suite Life Cycle Manager (vRSLCM) now integrates with SDDC manager. You can deploy and update vRealize products from vRSLCM.
  • New features and bugfixes in SDDC manager.
  • VMware Skyline support for VCF.

The update is expected in early October during or shortly after VMworld2020.

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Using more than one dvSwitch for overlay traffic in a VCF 4.0.1 VxRail cluster

SDDC-Manager is the central management tool in a vCloud Foundation (VCF) environment. You can add workload domains, import clusters to workload domains (WLD) or add Kubernetes namespaces. For every task there’s workflow in the GUI of SDDC-Manager.

Currently, as of version VCF 4.0.1, it is not possible to add a cluster with more than two uplinks and more than one vdSwitch to a WLD. If you try to do that in the GUI, you can only define one dvSwitch with two uplinks.

What now?

There’s help inside SDDC-manager.

Continue reading “Using more than one dvSwitch for overlay traffic in a VCF 4.0.1 VxRail cluster”
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VMUG Germany bi-weekly virtual events – Session 7: VMware Cloud Native & Open Source Engagements

On August 12th 2020 VMUG Germany will host another virtual event in its bi-weekly series with Bjoern Brundert who is going to talk about VMware Cloud Native & Open Source Engagements.

Bjoern Brundert
Principal Solution Engineer, Application Platforms,
Office of the CTO, Global Field, VMware

Link to registration

In cooperation with several local German, Swiss and Austrian VMUG chapters we are hosting short and crisp bi-weekly virtual events.

One speaker, one topic, one hour.

Every second Wednesday from 17:00 to 18:00 CEST we’re presenting interesting talks about new developments, products and trends around the VMware ecosphere.

Preview to further events in this series

Wednesday, August 27th 2020 at 5 p.m. CEST – Developing modern applications with VMware Tanzu Build Portfolio (German language)

Speaker: Ulrich Hoelscher, Senior Platform Architect Modern Apps BU, VMware