Our latest vSAN Tweet Chat was one for the books! We teamed up with vSphere, VMware Cloud Foundation and the VMware Events team to host a tweet chat as we gear up for vForum Online 2020. vForum Online is a virtual half day event that includes 44 technical breakouts, live Q&A with experts and 16 instructor-led Hands-On Labs where you can test drive vSAN. During this tweet chat we dove into what to expect during the event, how to make the most of your time and why you should register ASAP!
Check out what our vSAN experts John Nicholson and Pete Flecha, joined by experts, Bob Plankers, Josh Townsend and Rick Walsworth had to say in our recap below!
Q1. For our first question, why should folks attend vForum Online? (Tweet Link)
Bob Plankers: Just look at what’s packed into a half day — lots & lots & lots of very interesting topics.
Josh Townsend: Ask the experts! There’s lots of smart people waiting to answer questions on vForum Online. Ask your toughest questions on any VMware question and get that social interaction you’ve been craving!
Q2. What are the can’t-miss technical breakouts at vForum Online 2020? (Tweet Link)
Josh: Not to brag, but I have two sessions you might want to check out. I’m pretty excited for ‘Rapidly Scaling and Automating Hybrid VDI Environments with Horizon 7 and VMware Cloud Foundation’ as it is quite relevant to the challenges we’re all facing today.
Pete Flecha: Shameless plug: I would say the What’s New in vSAN 7 is a keeper.
John Nicholson: I’m a fan of questions you know you can get good Q&A out of. I know I can always get a good response out of Pete to my weird questions.
Rick Walsworth: Part 1, Go here to see all of the vForum Online technical breakout sessions to attend. Part 2, The hottest sessions are going to be the VMware Cloud Foundation and anything vSphere with Kubernetes.
Q3. What can we expect with the instructor-led Forum Online Hands-On Labs and why should we take vSAN or vSphere out for a test drive? (Tweet Link)
Josh: You have two options – learn it in an online lab, or continue to use your messy, outdated home lab and hope you figure it out on your own. vForum Online instructors will be your guide to vSAN learning zen.
Pete: I’m presenting the ‘What’s new with vSAN 7,’ but I brought my friends John Nicholson and Pete Koehler to help man the chat so bring all the questions. (the questions are my favorite part).
Bob: Hands-On Labs are a great place to test things out. There’s absolutely nothing that says you need to stick to the lab manual, either. Want to try some risky stuff? A nested lab like the Hands-On Lab is a great place to do so.
John: Having an instructor keeps you from getting stuck and provides a lot of color beyond the instruction books.
Rick: Many of the folks on this Tweet chat have vForum Online breakout sessions, but to see the entire list of technical sessions go here: https://bit.ly/2WpKq3T
Q4: There are a lot of new updates to vSAN in the latest release. What is something we might not know, like deploying virtual desktops, that we could learn at vForum Online? (Tweet Link)
Pete: Lots of great updates in vSAN 7 Take a listen to the Virtually Speaking Podcast for a primer: https://bit.ly/3fnqM1g
Josh: vSAN 7 has some cool new features like file services and enhanced cloud native services support. Cloud Native dovetails nicely with the new Tanzu Kubernetes features built into vSphere and Cloud Foundation.
Q5: With many organizations implementing or expanding their work-from-home capabilities and infrastructure, what are best practices for VDI and vSAN? (Tweet Link)
Josh: Take advantage of simple scaling provided by HCI to expand capacity. Cloud Foundation really makes the process of expanding capacity in your data center fast!
John: Part 1: Got a handy document to cover this: https://bit.ly/2W83Jja.
Part 2: A lot of it comes back to core VDI best practices. Don’t overcommit vCPU 15:1 Consider vGPUs, they even improve basic 2D browsers.
Part 3: All-flash vSAN storage can also make VDI performance awesome.
Part 4: Also, remember to have someone clean up the old GPO crimes that have been committed.
Part 5: For storage, consider instant clones. They keep things space efficient. Turn on UNMAP/TRIM if not deleting on logoff to kelp keep things tidy.
Rick: Look through the vForum online guide and highlight the App Modernization and multi-cloud tracks on this agenda and you’ll see all of the solid technical breakouts that cover this in depth.
Pete: The Virtually Speaking Podcast recently talked to Brian Madden about this very topic: https://bit.ly/2SFC0nV
Q6. What can we anticipate to learn about Hyperconverged Infrastructure & VMware Cloud Foundation during vForum Online? (Tweet Link)
Josh: Check out my session ‘Build, buy or borrow HCI with VMware Cloud Foundation’ to learn how to adopt consistent infrastructure across your hybrid cloud on your own terms!
Rick: There is a wide range of topics being covered at vForum online for Cloud Foundation, everything from the business basics to providing technical details and best practices for implementation. Multi-Cloud & App Modernization tracks: https://bit.ly/2zglgwB
Pete: New ways to do Lifecycle Management, performance enhancements in vSAN, Cloud Native Storage, and more.
Q7. Will there be opportunities to ask questions during vForum Online? How can I connect with the panelists and VMware subject matter experts? (Tweet Link)
Josh: You better believe it! All the presenters will be there to answer questions during their sessions and there will be break-outs where you can meet with VMware experts to ask your questions at vForum Online.
Rick: That’s the best part of vForum Online is the ability to engage with the vExperts. I know there are a lot of you out there that like to ‘stump the chump’. Now is your chance. Take the challenge.
Pete: Heck yes. It’s the only reason I’m joining. I love the Q&A. True story I know of at least one VMware feature that resulted from a customer question so bring it.
Q8. vSANChat vSphereChat show of hands poll – has everyone registered for vForum Online? (Tweet Link)
Josh: I’ll take your silence as a hard no. What are you waiting for? Get to it, register now: https://bit.ly/2RA5rYb! Don’t miss some great online social interaction on a wide range of VMware topics at vForum Online.
John: Of course!
Q9. The desert island question: If you could only pick ONE, which vForum Online Session or Hands-on-Lab would you choose? (Tweet Link)
Josh: I am going to check out ‘Secure your East-West Data Center traffic with the VMware Service-defined Firewall, VMware NSX Distributed IDS/IPS and VMware NSX Intelligence’. Securing east-west traffic will protect me from pirates as I await rescue from my island.
Pete: Well I don’t see any sessions on how to build a boat, so I guess remote work with WorkspaceONE.
That’s a wrap, folks! Don’t forget to follow the additional VMware experts who participated including Bob Plankers (@plankers), Josh Townsend (@joshuatownsend) and Rick Walsworth (@RickWalsworth).
Remember to follow the hashtag #vForumOnline to stay up to date and join the conversation. Stay tuned to our channels as we get close to vForum Online 2020 and RSVP for the virtual event on May 13, 2020 here!
