Category Archives: VMware

Red Hat OpenShift + VMware Header

OpenShift on VMware – Integrating with vSphere Storage, Networking and Monitoring.

VMware, Kubernetes, , ,

I was honoured to be a guest on the “Ask an OpenShift Admin” webinar recently. Where I had the chance to talk about OpenShift on VMware, always a hot topic, and how we co-innovate and work together on solutions.

You can watch the full session below. Keep reading to see the content I didn’t get to cover on a separate recording I’ve produced.

Ask an OpenShift Admin (Ep 54): OpenShift on VMware and the vSphere Kubernetes Drivers Operator

However, I had a number of topics and demo’s planned, that we never got time to visit. So here is the full content I had prepared.

Some of the areas in this webinar and my additional session we covered were:

  • Answering questions live from the views (anything on the table)
  • OpenShift together with VMware
  • Common issues and best practices for deploying OpenShift on VMware vSphere
  • Consuming your vSphere Storage in OpenShift
  • Integrating with the VMware Network stack
  • Infrastructure Up Monitoring
OpenShift on VMware – Integrating with vSphere Storage, Networking and Monitoring

Resources

Regards

Dean Lewis

vRealize Automation Header

Using vRealize Automation Cloud Template to execute a Code Stream Pipeline

VMware, , , ,

Looking at the latest vRA Cloud Template Schema, I saw something interesting in the definitions.

The ability to have a resource type of “codestream.execution”. This allows you to execute a Code Stream pipeline from within a cloud template. Once deployed, a Deployment will feature a resource object, of which you can also link a custom day 2 action to!

vRA Cloud Assembly - Deployment with codestream.execution resource object

This opens a lot of future possibilities of creative ways to extend your automation.

The schema looks like the below. And you can continue to follow this blog for an example. Continue reading Using vRealize Automation Cloud Template to execute a Code Stream Pipeline →

vSphere Kubernetes Drivers Operator - Red Hat OpenShift - Header

Using the new vSphere Kubernetes Driver Operator with Red Hat OpenShift via Operator Hub

Kubernetes, VMware, , , , , , ,
What is the vSphere Kubernetes Driver Operator (VDO)?

This Kubernetes Operator has been designed and created as part of the VMware and IBM Joint Innovation Labs program. We also talked about this at VMworld 2021 in a joint session with IBM and Red Hat. With the aim of simplifying the deployment and lifecycle of VMware Storage and Networking Kubernetes driver plugins on any Kubernetes platform, including Red Hat OpenShift.

This vSphere Kubernetes Driver Operator (VDO) exposes custom resources to configure the CSI and CNS drivers, and using Go Lang based CLI tool, introduces validation and error checking as well. Making it simple for the Kubernetes Operator to deploy and configure.

The Kubernetes Operator currently covers the following existing CPI, CSI and CNI drivers, which are separately maintained projects found on GitHub.

This operator will remain CNI agnostic, therefore CNI management will not be included, and for example Antrea already has an operator.

Below is the high level architecture, you can read a more detailed deep dive here.

vSphere Kubernetes Drivers Operator - Architecture Topology

Installation Methods

You have two main installation methods, which will also affect the pre-requisites below.

If using Red Hat OpenShift, you can install the Operator via Operator Hub as this is a certified Red Hat Operator. You can also configure the CPI and CSI driver installations via the UI as well.

  • Supported for OpenShift 4.9 currently.

Alternatively, you can install the manual way and use the vdoctl cli tool, this method would also be your route if using a Vanilla Kubernetes installation.

This blog post will cover the UI method using Operator Hub.

Pre-requisites

Continue reading Using the new vSphere Kubernetes Driver Operator with Red Hat OpenShift via Operator Hub →

Tanzu Nvidia Header

Deploying Nvidia GPU enabled Tanzu Kubernetes Clusters

VMware, Kubernetes, , , ,

In this blog post I’m going to detail how deploy and configure a Nvidia GPU enabled Tanzu Kubernetes Grid cluster in AWS. The method will be similar for Azure, for vSphere there are a number of additional steps to prepare the system. I’m going to essentially follow the official documentation, then run some of the Nvidia tests. Like always, it’s good to get a visual reference and such for these kinds of deployments.

Pre-Reqs
  • Nvidia today only support Ubuntu deployed images in relation to a TKG deployment
  • For this blog I’ve already deployed my TKG Management cluster in AWS
Deploy a GPU enabled workload cluster

It’s simple, just deploy a workload cluster that for the compute plane nodes (workers) that uses a GPU enabled instance.

You can create a new cluster YAML file from scratch, or clone one of your existing located in:

~/.config/tanzu/tkg/clusterconfigs

Below are the four main values you will need to change. As mentioned above, you need a GPU enabled instance, and for the OS to be Ubuntu. The OS version will default if not set to 20.04.

CONTROL_PLANE_MACHINE_TYPE: t3.large
NODE_MACHINE_TYPE: g4dn.xlarge
OS_ARCH: amd64
OS_NAME: ubuntu
OS_VERSION: "20.04

The rest of the file you configure as you would for any workload cluster deployment. Continue reading Deploying Nvidia GPU enabled Tanzu Kubernetes Clusters →

vRLI Header

VMC vCenter email alerts not supported – Workaround with vRealize Log Insight Cloud

VMware, , , , ,
The Issue

When configuring a VMware Cloud on AWS (VMC) SDDC vCenter, Administrators trying to use the vCenter Alerts email feature find they cannot complete the configuration, as the necessary options such as setting email server settings are greyed out.

Thanks to Bilal Ahmed for discussing this issue with me, so we could find a solution.
The Cause

Today this feature is not supported in VMware Cloud on AWS

The Workaround

By creating the vCenter Alert, even if it triggers to alert a placeholder email address. This will generate a vCenter event which is captured by vRealize Log Insight Cloud (vRLIC), the offering which is included with VMC (the freemium version included with VMC will sufficed for the workaround).

Within vRealize Log Insight you can generate an email alert from a query.

Obviously, a full monitoring suite is where you should be really heading for these types of information gathering and notifications such as vRealize Operations Cloud. However, this will suffice as a workaround where that option is not possible.

The vRealize Log Insight Cloud collects and analyzes logs generated in your SDDC.

A trial version of the vRealize Log Insight Cloud add-on is enabled by default in a new SDDC. The trial period begins when a user in your organization accesses the vRealize Log Insight Cloud add-on and expires in thirty days. After the trial period, you can choose to subscribe to this service or continue to use a subset of service features at no additional cost. 
Source
Example – Datastore Usage

You can do this for any vCenter Alarm type, but I am using datastore usage space as an example

  • First, we will create the vCenter Alarm

Continue reading VMC vCenter email alerts not supported – Workaround with vRealize Log Insight Cloud →