Whether it’s to keep ahead of security vulnerabilities or add new capabilities, software inevitably requires updating. For those of you tasked with maintaining a Software-Defined Data Center based on VMware vSphere, there will be quite a few pertinent breakout sessions and other events to ensure you’re well equipped with the latest knowledge.
New this year at VMworld is a breakout session devoted to the lifecycle management of VMware Tools (INF-8914, Mastering the VM Tools Lifecycle in your vSphere Data Center). I’ll be giving an overview of the different types of Tools and approaches that administrators can use to keep this critical component updated and implement standardization throughout an environment.
When it comes to managing vSphere – the ubiquitous virtual infrastructure foundation found in mission-critical data centers worldwide – there are several viable approaches. This year we will be demonstrating new functionality for patching and updating that is planned for a future release of the VMware flagship product. We’ve split the concepts up into two breakout sessions: one will cover stateless compute with Auto Deploy (INF8920, Leveraging Stateless Compute Infrastructure for Centralized Control of the Software-Defined Data Center), and the other will focus on VMware Update Manager capabilities (INF8926, Take Control of VMware vSphere Lifecycle Management in Your Software-Defined Data Center). You’ll also want to hear from a real VMware customer who has an entire session devoted to sharing his experience of running a stateless vSphere datacenter (INF8117, Why Fiserv Deployed Auto Deploy and Why You Should as Well).
Finally, outside the traditional breakout sessions, there is also a chance to log some stick time on a preview release of vSphere that features these new lifecycle features, via the Hands-on Labs. And for anyone that would like to have a more informal chat, I will be hosting a “Meet the Experts” session to discuss all of the topics mentioned above.
For quick links to these specific sessions in the catalog, check out – and bookmark – the quick-reference guide to the vSphere and host lifecycle management curriculum at VMworld 2016.
