One of the major steps of vSphere planning is checking the VMware hardware compatibility guide and also interoperability between chosen solutions before deploying any virtualization products in the infrastructure. In this video, I speak about the importance of these two subjects with some examples.
Fast and easy ways to fix known or unknown problems of every aspect in IT infrastructures is a big concern for all Admins, especially for whom managing recently modern data-centers. As you know each layer, asset and component of data-center has its own risks. VMware introduce Skyline as a proactive cloud-based platform to monitor and give us feedback for fixing and resolving configuration problems and security issues in virtualized environments of VMware customers, that are deployed based on VMware Validated Design or VxRail solution. This perfect solution give us a vision to reach more reliability in production and basically have two parts: Collector Appliance inside the virtualization infrastructure of customer and VMware Skyline Advisor, so it operates based on two following actions:
Also there
is another way to reach the goals, via Skyline Log Assist you can
manually uploading log files, but based on size of the files, this
operation can take many times to complete.
VMware Skyline Advisor is a self-service portal that you can have access to it through your VMware account as a customer and through this you can see the recommended actions and improvement suggestions to resolve easy or complex problems. This procedure also gives the VMware chance of better security risk assessment and fixing the issues easier and earlier, and let us to obtain opportunities of security-concerns handling.
Just remember VMware Skyline approach is to solve the detected problems not just show us only symptoms. It made the IT department to be more prominent in the company's business roadmap and be active as a part of value-added services.
Skyline collector setup is very easy like deploying other VMware or 3rd-party virtual appliance-based solutions and do not have a complex deployment procedure. And also, like other VMware solutions there is a VAMI web interface for collector. (And like the VCSA, corresponding port is 5480)
To see frequently questions about the VMware Skyline, you can check the Skyline FAQ and also KB55928. To know how VMware Global Support Service can help customer to obtain benefits of VMware Skyline, read the Support Entitlement Modes of Skyline Advisor. For more steps to go through the VMware Skyline you can watch many videos presented by VMware technical support or customer services.
In this video, I speak about more details of VMware vSphere upgrade planning and operation in 3 phases, based on titles of "Upgrading to VMware vSphere 7" document. Thanks to Nigel Hickey for writing this eBook, I review all requirements for upgrading, planning to do, tips and notes, and also benefits, limitations and committed changes in vSphere 7.
I speak and review the considerations, limitations, all challenges, and risks of updating and upgrading VMware ESXi via the direct installation method or by using vSphere Update Manager (VUM) or Lifecycle Manager (LCM).
