Unexplored Territory
By Duncan Epping
#113 - Procuring hardware for a vSAN based VCF infrastructure - featuring John Nicholson!
I've been on the Virtually Speaking podcast several times, so it was time to invite one of the hosts to the Unexplored Territory Podcast and discuss his favorite topic, hardware configurations, and the bill of materials!
John Nicholson goes over all the ins and outs of procuring new hardware and talks about ordering components for existing hardware. We discuss NICs, Switches, Ready Node configurations, Emulated Ready Node configurations, NVMe devices, and much more.
During the discussion, various blogs and videos were mentioned, make sure to check those as well!
- https://blogs.vmware.com/cloud-foundation/2023/07/26/expanded-hardware-compatibility-for-vsan-express-storage-architecture/
- https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/326476/what-you-can-and-cannot-change-in-a-vsan.html
- https://blogs.vmware.com/cloud-foundation/2023/07/27/yes-you-can-change-things-on-a-vsan-esa-readynode/
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjen1ER8ASc
- https://www.vmware.com/explore/video-library/video/6360757998112
#112 - Introducing VMware vDefend featuring Chris McCain!
A few episodes ago we had Yves Hertoghs on the show to discuss networking, so I decided it was also time to discuss security. As Chris McCain has been at the forefront of networking and security at VMware for over a decade, it only made sense to reach out and invite him to introduce vDefend!
Not only was Chris part of the Explore keynote, but he also delivered various excellent sessions on networking and security in the past couple of years, and I would highly encourage you to watch those as well!
- Explore 2025 - Demystifying VMware vDefend Distributed Security Within VMware Cloud Foundation
- Explore 2025 - Building Secure Private AI Deep Dive
#111 - VMUG Connect, coming to a city near you soon! (Featuring Brad Tompkins)
In 2025 the first VMUG Connect event was held in the US, and as it was a big success VMUG decided to repeat that formula in Amsterdam, Minneapolis, Toronto, Dallas and Orlando. I invited Brad Tompkins to the show to explain what these VMUG events are all about, and also provide some insights into the world of VMUG.
I have the pleasure, and honor, to host a keynote session in Amsterdam at Connect in March. I hope to see all of you there. For more details on pricing, locations, and more, make sure to visit the VMUG Connect website. Also, if you are planning on attending, I would highly encourage you to book asap as we've seen Explore on Tour selling out everywhere...
#110 - vSAN over Fibre Channel featuring Rakesh Radhakrishnan!
After Rakesh and I shared the news at Explore, and Explore On Tour, that vSAN would potentially be able to use Fibre Channel as a transport layer, since then the phone has been ringing nonstop. So it was time for me to invite Rakesh and ask him to explain what vSAN over FC is all about. In this episode Rakesh covers the why, the what, but unfortunately the when is still a question. Nevertheless, this episode is a must-listen!
Discussed papers/links:
#109 - An introduction to Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) featuring Yves Hertoghs
VMware Cloud Foundation 9 has brought the Virtual Private Cloud networking model front and center in the vSphere UI. Not only has it become extremely easy to provide a self-service solution for networking, it comes with a plethora of networking services and capabilities. Maybe even more importantly, it allows networking-noobs (like myself) to consume advanced functionality without having to file dozens of service requests. In this episode, Yves Hertoghs explains what a Virtual Private Cloud is and discusses all the ins and outs around the Transit Gateway, vDefend, subnets and much more.
#108 - My Explore recap: VCF Native S3 Object Storage, Cyber Recovery, and vSAN on FC!
I had some trouble scheduling guests the past weeks, and as a result, I figured I would try something new. In this episode I go over the various things I announced at Explore and Explore on Tour in London, Paris, and Frankfurt. I talk about VCF Native S3 Object Storage, the enhancements we are planning for Disaster Recovery as well as Cyber Recovery, and I also briefly touch on vSAN on FC. If you like to hear more about vSAN ESA Global Deduplication, make sure to go to this blog on Yellow-Bricks, as it contains the links to the discussion Pete Koehler and I had on the show a while back.
#107 - Why VCF is the best platform for your modern workloads featuring Jad El-Zein!
Recently, I read this article about why VCF is the best platform for modern workloads, so I figured I would invite the author, Jad El-Zein. Jad and I discuss all the arguments of why VCF and all components are the perfect destination for containers, or I should probably say your modern workloads.
#106 - Why a valued partner like ITQ believes in Broadcom's strategy and the VMware portfolio!
Recently, I read a fantastic LinkedIn post by Francisco Perez van der Oord, the founder of ITQ, in which he explained why he believes in Broadcom's strategic direction and the VMware portfolio. It was an interesting read, and for me, a great reason to invite one of our most valued partners in EMEA to the show. I want to thank Francisco for taking the time to sit down, as I know he has a crazy schedule.
Enjoy the conversation!
#105 - How do I enable vSAN ESA Global Deduplication in 9.0?
For this episode I invited our raging reporter on scene Pete Koehler! Pete is going over all the benefits, requirements, and limitations around vSAN ESA Global Deduplication. This feature was released with 9.0.1 and is available per request as discussed in this blog post. If you want to get access make sure to sign up using the form in the blog.
Just as a summary, right now vSAN ESA Global Deduplication requires:
- Version 9.0.1
- 25GbE (or higher) networking
- Telemetry needs to be enabled (CEIP)
There are a few limitations:
- Minimum of 3 hosts and maximum of 16 hosts in a cluster
- Does not support the use of Stretched Cluster functionality
- Cannot be combined with data-at-rest-encryption
#104 - Exploring recent Ransomware Recovery and Data Recovery announcements with Jatin Jindal
For episode #104 I invited Jatin Jindal to talk us through the recent Ransomware Recovery and Data Recovery announcements. Jatin discusses what the VMware Ransomware Recovery entails, what the differences are between a ransomware recovery process and a disaster recovery scenario, and he talks about various roadmap items like tag-based selection, seeding, QLC support, and vSAN Cyber ReadyNodes. Interested in participating in the upcoming Storage, Data Protection, and Data Beta Programs? Sign up now by filling out this form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeXBC6_oAnkS8vCFztuLQFHx0qZ5xxJSmxbMkyPBvDFM0lHLg/viewform
Watch Jatin's Explore sessions now:
#103 - The performance impact of Memory Tiering featuring Qasim Ali and Todd Muirhead
The last few months, I've had many discussions about Memory Tiering. When I saw a brand new performance white paper being released, I knew it was time to invite two of the authors. Qasim Ali and Todd Muirhead go over the ins and outs of Memory Tiering, they discuss the basics, but also explain in-depth what the potential performance impact is when enabling this feature in your environment. If you'd like to know more, visit the following links!
- Performance blog
- Performance white paper
- Explore Session Arvind and David
- Explore Session Dave
- Extreme Performance Series videos
- How to enable Memory Tiering blog
- VMware Performance Blog
Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions shared in this podcast are our own/guest(s), and not necessarily those of Broadcom, or Google.
#102 - Explore on Tour featuring Joe Baguley and friends!
We just finished Explore in Las Vegas, and the various local Explore On Tour events are literally around the corner. I will most likely be in London, Frankfurt, and potentially Paris myself. It looks like Joe Baguley will also be at all of those events delivering the keynote! Why should you go? Well, listen to the episode to find out. We start out with a brief conversation with Joe, and then have Frank Denneman, Martin Hosken, and Lars Fiechtner joining to provide their insights!
My call to action, if you are planning on attending, register as soon as possible, as London sold out fast, and so did the UK VMUG the day after!
Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions shared in this podcast are our own/guest(s), and not necessarily those of Broadcom, or Google.
#101 - Discussing VCF 9.0 and Private AI Foundation with NVIDIA enhancements with Frank Denneman!
It was time to get Frank Denneman back on the show to discuss the enhancements introduced in VCF 9 and Private AI Foundation with NVIDIA. Frank goes over all new functionality and all the enhancements like Agent Builder etc. Frank also mentioned various must-attend sessions at Explore. Register now, as these will fill up fast:
- Chris Wolf, keynote and breakout!
- Shawn Kelly and Justin Murray: Accelerating AI Workloads
- Frank's AI/ML sessions!
Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions shared in this podcast are our own/guest(s), and not necessarily those of Broadcom, or Google.
#100 - What is the Google Cloud VMware Engine all about? Featuring Sai Gopalan and Ken Bocchino
Episode 100, YESSSS! Finally, we managed to get there. For this episode, I invited two Google Cloud VMware Engine (GCVE) product managers to explain what GCVE is all about. We had Dr. Wade Holmes on the show, 84 episodes ago, to introduce GCVE, so it was time to re-introduce GCVE and discuss the current solution, and the benefits it brings with for instance the flexibility in node types, bring your own licensing, disaster recovery, networking, and much more. Ken and Sai had some interesting stories, so make sure to pay close attention!
Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions shared in this podcast are our own/guest(s), and not necessarily those of Broadcom, or Google.
#099 - Introducing vSAN 9.0 featuring Pete Koehler!
VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 was recently launched, and that means vSAN 9.0 is also available. There's many new features introduced in 9.0, so a perfect time to ask Pete Koehler to join the podcast once again and go over some of these key enhancements. Below you can find the links we discussed during the episode!
Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions shared in this podcast are our own/guest(s), and not necessarily those of Broadcom, VMware by Broadcom, or SAP.
#098 - VMware Cloud Foundation 5.x in a single box for homelabs featuring William Lam!
I recently came across an excellent blog by William Lam, which discussed how to set up VMware Cloud Foundation 5.x on a single box for home labs. William created a Github page that goes over the whole process, and provided all the tweaks and scripts needed to get it done. I wanted to discuss this process with William, as I believe many folks in the VMware/Broadcom community will be interested in deploying this at home, or at work, to go through that full VCF experience but without needing a larger lab environment. Thanks William, for a fantastic episode.
Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions shared in this podcast are our own/guest(s), and not necessarily those of Broadcom, VMware by Broadcom, or SAP.
#097 - Running AI/ML workloads on top of VMware Cloud Foundation featuring Frank Denneman
I recently read a blog post on AI/ML performance on top of VCF, and figured it was time to invite Frank Denneman back to the podcast. During the episode we discuss VMware Private AI Foundation with NVIDIA, and Frank also mention Ollama as a great starting point.
Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions shared in this podcast are our own/guest(s), and not necessarily those of Broadcom, VMware by Broadcom, or SAP.
#096 - Crosspost of WSHTF episode featuring me, Duncan Epping!
I recently recorded a podcast episode with Johan and Jeffrey for their podcast, When Shit Hits The Fan. It was a fantastic conversation, which I wanted to share with all of you. As such I asked Johan if I could crosspost it. Make sure to subscribe to the WSHTF podcast channel (Apple, Spotify) , as it has some fantastic stories from various fantastic guests!
Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions shared in this podcast are our own/guest(s), and not necessarily those of Broadcom, VMware by Broadcom, or SAP.
#095 - Event Season Kickoff: NVIDIA GTC, KubeCon, and Dutch VMUG with Johan van Amersfoort
For this episode I decided to invite Johan van Amersfoort to discuss with us his experiences at NVIDIA GTC, Kubecon London, and of course the Dutch VMUG. Or should we say, the start of event season? Johan shared countless of updates and videos on LinkedIn, make sure to check those out while you are at it!
Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions shared in this podcast are our own/guest(s), and not necessarily those of Broadcom, VMware by Broadcom, or SAP.
#094 - Discussing SAP HANA support for vSAN ESA 8.x with Erik Rieger!
Recently Broadcom announced that vSAN ESA support for SAP HANA was introduced. Erik Rieger is Broadcom's Principal SAP Global Technical Alliance Manager and Architect, and as such I invited him on the show to go over what this actually means, and why this is important for customers!
For more details make sure to check:
SAP note 3406060 – SAP HANA on VMware vSphere 8 and vSAN 8 for details.
SAP HANA and VMware support pages
SAP HANA on HCI powered by vSAN
vSphere and SAP HANA best practices
Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions shared in this podcast are our own/guest(s), and not necessarily those of Broadcom, VMware by Broadcom, or SAP.
#093 - Best practices for Latency Sensitive Workloads featuring Mark A!
Recently a new white paper was released on the topic of latency-sensitive workloads. I invited Mark Achtemichuck (X, LinkedIn) to the show to go over the various recommendations and best practices. Mark highlight many important configuration settings, and also recommends everyone to not only read the white paper, but also the vSphere 8 performance documentation. Also, his VMware Explore session comes highly recommended, make sure to watch it!
Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions shared in this podcast are our own/guest(s), and not necessarily those of Broadcom or VMware by Broadcom.
#092 - Introducing Data Services Manager 2.2 featuring Cormac Hogan
Recently VMware Data Services Manager 2.2 was released, so I had to invite my good friend Cormac Hogan to discuss all the enhancements we introduced to an already great product. Of course, we also discussed the Tech Preview for the Object Storage Service, which enables you to deploy MinIO at scale!
Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions shared in this podcast are our own/guest(s), and not necessarily those of Broadcom or VMware by Broadcom.
#091 - Discussing performance with Ravi Soundararajan
In episode 091 of the Unexplored Territory Podcast we have Ravi Soundararajan as a guest to discuss all things performance. There's a reason Ravi's name on X is "vCenterPerfGuy". Ravi has been involved in performance troubleshooting and engineering for the longest time, and shares his insights in some of the most recent findings with regards to vSphere Tagging and the API performance. Ravi also discusses vCenter bandwidth requirements and some of the vCenter task limits there are in place. Make sure to listen to this episode from start to finish!
Some papers discussed:
https://www.vmware.com/docs/vcenter80u3-tagging-perf
https://www.vmware.com/docs/robo-vcenter67-perf
https://www.vmware.com/docs/vc6-perf-bp
Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions shared in this podcast are our own/guest(s), and not necessarily those of Broadcom or VMware by Broadcom.
#089 - Discussing the VCP-VVF and VCP-VCF certification with Bart Peeters!
Some of you have seen these new certifications popping up, VCP-VVF and VCP-VCF. I asked Bart Peeters, who recently took both the Admin exams, as well as the VCF architect exam, to talk us through his experience and some of his insights.
Discussed on the podcast:
VMUG Advantage with free exam voucher details
VCP-VVF Admin experience
VCP-VCF Admin experience
VCP-VCF Architect experience
VCF Course
Exam pricing announcement
Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions shared in this podcast are our own/guest(s), and not necessarily those of Broadcom or VMware by Broadcom.
#088 - VMware Cloud Foundation in a stretched environment featuring Paudie O'Riordan!
Over the last few years stretched environments have been extremely popular amongst vSAN and VMware Cloud Foundation customers. The storage is the easy part, the network is usually where it gets more complex. To discuss the best practices, requirements, and caveats I invited Paudie O'Riordan to the show to share his knowledge and expertise!
- Explore session: VMware vSAN Stretched Clusters and VMware Cloud Foundation: What's Changed, What's New
- vSAN Stretched Cluster Guide
- vSAN Stretched PoC Guide
Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions shared in this podcast are our own/guest(s), and not necessarily those of Broadcom or VMware by Broadcom.
#087 - Microsoft on VMware VCF featuring Deji Akomolafe
For episode 087 of the podcast, I invited Deji Akomolafe to the show to discuss Microsoft on VMware VCF and vSphere. Deji shares his experiences virtualizing and running Microsoft apps on top of VCF and vSphere and discusses some of the best practices and constraints.
Whitepapers and tools discussed in the episode:
- Protecting mission critical workloads with Live Site Recovery
- Microsoft SQL on vSphere best practices
- Diskspd for bench
- Explore session - Improving Workload Availability Using vMotion Application Notification
- Explore session - Architecting Your Microsoft SQL Server Workloads on VMware Cloud Foundation
- Explore session - Improving Workloads Availability on VCF with vMotion Apps Notification
Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions shared in this podcast are our own/guest(s), and not necessarily those of Broadcom or VMware by Broadcom.
#086 - Discussing the VCF and vSAN 9 storage and data protection vision with Pete Koehler!
In episode 086 of the podcast, we discuss the most recent VCF 9 and vSAN 9 storage and data protection announcements with Pete Koehler. These announcements were made at VMware Explore 2024, and in my opinion, will bring both vSAN and VCF to the next level.
During the discussion, we mentioned the following YouTube videos, which demonstrate the capabilities that are planned for vSAN and VCF 9:
- vSAN Site Take Over and Site Maintenance
- vSAN to vSAN Native Replication
- VCF Federated Storage Views
And as promised links to Johan's podcast called "When shit hits the fan" or "In de aap gelogeerd", subscribe now to automatically get the upcoming episodes which will be in English! (Spotify, Apple, Website)
Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions shared in this podcast are our own/guest(s), and not necessarily those of Broadcom or VMware by Broadcom.
#085 - Past, present, and future.. with Duncan, Frank, and Johan!
#084 - Use cases for vSphere Memory Tiering with Brandon Frost!
#083 - VMware Explore 2024 US Special
#082 - Memory Tiering, CXL and Project Peaberry featuring Arvind Jagannath!
#081 - Diving into the vSphere IaaS Control Plane with Katarina Brookfield
#080 - Announcing the vGPU Monitoring Fling with Ala Dewberry
#079 - vSphere and vSAN 8.0 Update 3 with Tech Marketing Architect's Feidhlim, Jason, and Pete!
#078 - Going through the Tanzu Platform announcements with Keith Lee
#077 - Introducing Data Services Manager 2.0 featuring Cormac Hogan
#076 - AI Roles Demystified: A Guide for Infrastructure Admins with Myles Gray
#075 - Newsflash - VMware Workstation and Fusion licensing changes! (Did I hear free?)
#074 - Exploring the Cloud-Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) with William Rizzo
#073 - What was announced for vSAN in the last month? Featuring Pete Koehler!
#072 - Chris Gully and the rise of Small Language Models
#071 - Developer Experience & Spring with DaShaun Carter
#070 - vSAN performance with Patryk Wolsza (Intel)
#069 - AI on CPUs with Earl Ruby
#068 - Diving into the VMC on AWS announcements with Niels Hagoort
#067 - Securing the world's data with Rubrik featuring Jerry Rijnbeek
#066 - Data Platforms for AI/ML workload with Vaughn Stewart
#065 - Oracle Cloud VMware Solution update featuring Jatin Purohit!
#064 - Homelabs for AI featuring William Lam
