John Nicholson

Recent Posts

VMware Cloud Foundation

How vSAN Simplifies VMware Cloud Foundation

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I recently was asked about the operational benefits and cost of ownership of using vSAN with VMware Cloud Foundation. Jeff Hunter posted an excellent blog covering why “VMware Cloud Foundation Starts with vSAN.” Having worked with vSAN in production, it simplified how we provisioned and managed storage. While no single action in standing up a Read more...
SPBM policy exceptions

SPBM Policy Exception Cases

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vSAN Object Types There are a number of different object types within VMware vSAN. The most common ones are: VM home namespace – Location for VM configuration and log files. VM swap object – Created for the VM swap file (only created when the VM is powered on). VMDK – Stores the data that is Read more...
Domain design vSAN

VMware Validated Design – vSAN Management Domain Design

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I recently had some discussions with a customer trying to decide on some design decisions for a VMware Validated Design (VVD) being deployed. While a lot of design decisions are fairly straight forward, (The Distributed Switch is arguably superior to the standard switch) a lot of vSAN data services decisions require some nuance and understanding Read more...
hyperconverged infrastructure

Designing vSAN Networks – 2019 Update part 2

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Back in 2017, I wrote three blogs that covered some common vSAN network design choices: Designing vSAN Networks – Dedicated or Shared Interfaces? Designing vSAN Networks – Why Should I Use the Distributed Switch? Designing vSAN Networks – Using Multiple Interfaces? I thought it would be a good idea to start out the new year Read more...
hyperconverged infrastructure

Designing vSAN Networks – 2019 Update

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Back in 2017, I wrote three blogs that covered some common vSAN network design choices: Designing vSAN Networks – Dedicated or Shared Interfaces? Designing vSAN Networks – Why Should I Use the Distributed Switch? Designing vSAN Networks – Using Multiple Interfaces? I thought it would be a good idea to start out the new year Read more...
Tech Field Day

Join us at Tech Field Day 18

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On February 7th VMware subject matter experts joined the Tech Field Day team at Tech Field Day 18 in Austin, TX! The brain child of GestaltIT, Tech Field Day is an independent IT influencer event that allows vendors to discuss products and/or features with industry leading bloggers, speakers, and podcasters. Taken from the About Tech Field Day Read more...
VMware Horizon 7 on VMware vSAN

VMware Horizon 7 on VMware vSAN Best Practices

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How does vSAN deduplication work with virtual desktop clones? Should I choose per VM or per cluster encryption for VDI? Are Instant Clones supported on vSAN? These and other questions are answered in the VMware Horizon 7 on VMware vSAN Best Practices technical white paper. Core Use Case for vSAN One of the first core Read more...

Datastax, Cassandra and VMware vSAN powered HCI

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This blog was co-authored by Kathryn Erickson, Director of Strategic Partnerships at DataStax Enterprise   Cloud native applications can prove challenging to deploy, as the most efficient means of deployment may require building out a unique silo to handle the specific storage requirements of the platform. While it is true that you can force these Read more...
Update Manager

VMware Update Manager Firmware Updates in vSAN 6.7 U1

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vSAN HCI lifecycle management improvements Updates are an essential part of the day to day operations in a data center. VMware has been focused on making updates to a vSAN cluster as effortless as possible. vSAN 6.7 U1 centralizes all updating of vSAN and associated hardware through VMware Update Manager or VUM. This means that Read more...