Category: Cloud

In the last few days I have worked with Cloud Providers looking to migrate their workloads to new environments (Greenfield). That is why I have decided to write about the different options and their benefits..

As we have already discussed in previous posts, there are different migration strategies. But today, I want to focus on what I consider to be the most common ones in Cloud Providers.

The first one is Repurchasing; Moving away from a perpetual license model to a SaaS model (VCPP one in VMware case)

Rehosting is an important strategy, involves a change in the hypervisor. In most of the cases Hyper-V.

Last but not least, Relocating migrating VMs from one virtualized environment to another without requiring changes. Legacy to Greenfield.

Regarding the type of migration, the goal is to migrate as many workloads as possible with the least downtime. So we will try to add the greatest amount of VM’s in Hot or Warm waves.

Hot
Known as live migration. The virtual machine stays powered on during the initial full synchronization and the subsequent delta sync, using the VMware vSphere® vMotion® feature.

Warm
Migration is a virtual machine that is actively running while it is being replicated to ensure minimal downtime.

There is a third option, but it is the one we will try to avoid, although not in all possible cases and it is known as Cold.

Cold
A Cold Migration is a virtual machine that is powered off before starting the migration. It is advisable to divide the migration into phases: Plan, Build, Migrate and Operate.

I will be talking about these 4 phases in my next Post.

The EMEA Cloud Briefing took place last Thursday, it has been a pleasure to be part of it. If you have not been able to connect, here is a brief summary

Andy Christmas, opened the event by reviewing the agenda: After showing the new VMware Cloud Interface for HD events he thanked the participants (more than 400 Service Providers from all over EMEA) and led to Herve Basso, EMEA Director for Cloud Providers.

Herve reviewed what happened over the past year, sharing VMware’s growth in the Service Provider market. Despite the difficult situation we have faced due to the pandemic, VMware has had an excellent year.

Later, it was the turn of Service Providers who shared their experiences working with VMware and how their operations and offerings have grown.

Finally, two Breakout Sessions were held:

Breakout Session 1: Patrick Verhoeven, Eiad Al-Aqqad and I talked about the Cloud Provider Platform evolution

Breakout Session 2: The “Leveraging SaaS Service” was conducted by Ramona Pilotto, Gerrit Lehr and Jerome Klodzinski.

Agenda:

If you are a Service Provider looking to grow your business, please join the EMEA Briefing next Thursday 21 at 3:00 PM CET.

I will be presenting the “Cloud Provider Platform Evolution” breakout session with my colleagues Eiad AL-Aqqad and Patrick Verhoeven.

Also, Owen Rogers from 451 Research as a guest speaker during our keynote, following which we’ll break into two specific workstreams to assist in the development of your strategy.

Full agenda:

Register now

See you there!

Im glad to be part of a new Cloud Briefing for cloud Providers on Thursday 21, January 2021. We’ll explain the latest VMware technologies and innovations that empower your own offerings, enabling you to provide flexibility and choice to your customers and yourselves.

We’re delighted to welcome Owen Rogers from 451 Research as a guest speaker during our keynote, following which we’ll break into two specific workstreams to assist in the development of your strategy.

Mark the date now!

Registration: https://via.vmw.com/EPY0

I will share a detailed agenda soon!

vCloud Usage Meter version 4.3 has been released couple of weeks ago, as version 3.6.x goes End of support on March 2021 it’s a good time to upgrade.

With Usage Meter Version 4.3 partners no longer need to update Usage Meter if program changes happen and also don’t need anymore to perform data retention for compliance purposes, because all usage data is stored in the SaaS service.

Products Support:

• NSX-T
• vRealize Network Insight
• vSphere with Kubernetes
• SDDC Manager

Download

In- Place Upgrade:

 vCloud Usage Meter 4.3 can be installed as an in-place upgrade on top of vCloud Usage Meter 4.1.x or vCloud Usage Meter 4.2. 

Prerequisites

• Back up or take a snapshot of the source vCloud Usage Meter appliance that you want to upgrade.
• You must enable SSH on the source vCloud Usage Meter appliance.
• You must have a password to log in to the vCloud Usage Meter console as root.

Procedure

1. Locally on you computer, download the ums-system-upgrade.shar file.
2. Copy the upgrade ums-system-upgrade.shar file to a folder in the source vCloud Usage Meter console.You can use a SCP software like WinSCP on Windows.
3. Log in to the source vCloud Usage Meter console as root.
4. To install the shar file, run the command.
5. To complete the in-place upgrade, you must reboot the appliance.After rebooting the appliance, the system generates a cloudusagemetering-old folder for the source vCloud Usage Meter installation backup. A newly created cloudusagemetering folder points to the upgraded vCloud Usage Meter installation.
6. Verify that the vCloud Usage Meter services are up and running.
   1. Enter the /opt/vmware/cloudusagemetering directory.
   2. Verify the status of the vCloud Usage Meter services.
7. Stop SSH by running the command

Migrate product configuration:

Product configuration data can be migrated from your source vCloud Usage Meter 3.6.x appliance to your vCloud Usage Meter 4.3 appliance.

Prerequisites:

• Back up or take a snapshot of the source vCloud Usage Meter appliance.
• You must have the TCP host name or IP address and the usgmtr user password of the source vCloud Usage Meter appliance. 
• Deploy vCloud Usage Meter 4.3 as a new appliance.

Procedure:

1. Log in to the source vCloud Usage Meter console as root. 
2. Start the SSHD service in the source vCloud Usage Meter appliance by running the following command. service sshd start
3. Log in to the target vCloud Usage Meter console as usagemeter. 
4. Start the SSHD service in the target vCloud Usage Meter appliance by running the following command. su root service sshd start
5. To migrate the source product configuration data to the target vCloud Usage Meter 4.3 appliance, run the command. migrateum hostname
   
   Here, hostname is the TCP host name or IP address of the source vCloud Usage Meter appliance from which you are migrating the vCenter Server configuration data. 
   
   The migrateum command uses SSH and Secure copy protocol to export the database and keystore files from the source system and copy it to vCloud Usage Meter 4.3.
   
   Confirm that you want to migrate vCloud Usage Meter data. 
   You must enter the usgmtr password of the source vCloud Usage Meter appliance and confirm that you want to proceed with the data migration. 
   
6. In the source vCloud Usage Meter console, stop the sshd service by running the following command. service sshd stop
7. In the target vCloud Usage Meter console, disable the sshd service by running the following command.

Results

The login credentials for the vCloud Usage Meter 4.3 Web interface are the usagemeter ones, that you set during the deployment of vCloud Usage Meter 4.3.

Important:

You can run the migrateum command only once. 

To ensure that vCloud Usage Meter 4.3 is working correctly, run the new appliance in parallel with the source appliance for at least one full reporting cycle.

The vRealize Operations Manager product configuration data is not migrated from the source vCloud Usage Meter appliance to the target vCloud Usage Meter 4.3 appliance. If a vRealize Operations Manager server is associated with a vCenter Server instance that you added for metering in the source vCloud Usage Meter appliance, after you migrate the product confirguration data, vCloud Usage Meter 4.3 automatically detects the vRealize Operations Manager server.

To start metering the product consumption data of the migrated vRealize Automation instance, in the vCloud Usage Meter Web interface, you must manually update the vRealize Automation instance details and accept the server certificate.

See you next year, enjoy your Holidays

If you never attended VMworld before this is your chance., for the first time since 2004, registration is free, and the event is 100% online around the globe from September 29th to October 1st.

There are two types of passes, General and Premier pass. As I already mentioned, you can virtually assist to VMworld for free this year. You only need to pick the General Pass option during the registration process.

General Pass includes 100+ sessions across seven live VMworld Channels, 500+ on-demand sessions, VMware on-demand Hands-on Labs, Solutions Exchange, and networking opportunities.

If you think this isn’t enough, you can choose the Premier Pass, you will get all features of the general pass, plus expert roundtables and birds-of-a-feather, 1:1 expert consultations, and VMware Hands-on Labs guided workshops.

Since yesterday scheduling is available, so its time to choose your favourites sessions. This year there are seven different tracks:

1. Vision and Innovation
2. Multi-Cloud 
3. App Modernization
4. Intrinsic Security
5. Virtual Cloud Network
6. Digital Workspace
7. Telco 5G

Register today:

https://www.vmworld.com/en/us/pricing.html

Content Catalog:

https://my.vmworld.com/widget/vmware/vmworld2020/catalog

There is no excuse; this year is your chance to be part of the VMworld.

See you there!!

VMworld 2020: Gratis y Online!!!

Si nunca has asistido al VMworld, esta es tu oportunidad.

Por primera vez desde 2004, la inscripción es gratuita y el evento es 100% Online en todo el mundo desde el 29 de septiembre hasta el 1 de octubre.

Hay dos tipos de pases, General y Premier. Como ya mencioné, este año puedes asistir virtualmente a VMworld gratis. Solo necesitas elegir la opción Pase General durante el registro.

General Pass incluye más de 100 sesiones, en siete canales de VMworld en vivo, más de 500 sesiones on demand, laboratorios prácticos de VMware, intercambio de soluciones y oportunidades de networking.

Si cree que esto no es suficiente, puede elegir el Pase Premier, obtendras todas las funciones del pase general, además de round tables con expertos y birds-of-a-feather, consultas de expertos 1: 1 y Laboratorios prácticos guiados.

Desde ayer la programación está disponible, es hora de elegir tus sesiones favoritas.

Este año hay siete pistas diferentes:

Visión e Innovación
Multi-nube
Modernización de aplicaciones
Seguridad intrínseca
Red de nube virtual
Espacio de trabajo digital
Telco 5G

Regístrese hoy:
https://www.vmworld.com/en/us/pricing.html

Catálogo de contenido:
https://my.vmworld.com/widget/vmware/vmworld2020/catalog

No hay excusas; este año es tu oportunidad de asistir a VMworld.

¡¡Nos vemos!!

Are you looking to easily deploy your full Cloud Provider stack?, accelerates the time to value?, reduces the scope for errors?, and lowers operational expenses?

Cloud Provider Pod automates deployment of the full Cloud Provider stack and can be easily extended to provide custom provisioning needs

Components

Cloud Provider Pod can deploy the following VMware products in adherence with VMware Validated Designs for Cloud Providers, accompanied by customized documentation with guidance on design and operations.vSphere

• vSphere
• vSAN
• NSX
• vCloud Director
• vCloud Director Extender
• vRealize Orchestrator
• vRealize Operations
• vRealize Log Insight
• vRealize Network Insight
• Usage Meter

Detailed Deployment and Operations Guidelines

Cloud Provider Pod generates custom documentation based on cloud
design inputs that help the Cloud Provider deploy an interoperable and
validated stack.

Certified Interoperability and Scale per VMware Validated Design

Cloud Provider Pod-generated documentation bears adherence to the
latest VMware Validated Designs and is additionally scale-tested for Cloud
Provider environments.

Multi-tenant, open, extensible Cloud

Deploys a multi-tenant, self-service Cloud environment that is open (REST
APIs, CLI and Py SDK), extensible (UI-extensible, compliant with Ansible
and Terraform), and has native integration with ecosystem partners (Data
Protection from EMC Avamar).

What are the use cases for Cloud Provider Pod?

VMware Cloud Provider Pod facilitates the deployment of a software-defined
cloud provider environment that can be used to deliver a multitude of turnkey
services, such as:
• Managed Private Cloud
• Multi-tenant Cloud
• Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service
• Backup and Availability Services
• Security and Compliance Services
• Cloud Management Services
• Cloud Migration Services
• Cloud Operations and Monitoring Services

For more information, please visit:
https://www.vmware.com/cloud-solutions.html