Blog
Practical insights on enterprise infrastructure modernization, from automated provisioning to unified observability and beyond.
vSAN in VCF 9: Preventing ESXi Reboot Hangs with an Orchestrator Precheck Gate
Use an Orchestrator precheck gate to block risky reboots when vSAN health/resync conditions are unsafe.
Network & Security: Clearing NSX BGP Precheck Alarms with Orchestrator
Automate the Tier-0 Inter-SR iBGP toggle remediation to clear blocking NSX precheck alarms.
Infrastructure Automation: Enforcing VCF Automation Upgrade Prechecks with Orchestrator
Automate upgrade readiness checks for VCF Automation so change windows stop depending on tribal knowledge.
Hybrid Operations: Triage VCF Diagnostics Findings with Orchestrator
Reduce noise by validating Diagnostics findings before escalating or remediating.
Cost Optimization: Reclaiming vSAN Capacity with TRIM/UNMAP and Orchestrated Batch Restarts
Enable TRIM/UNMAP and use Orchestrator to power-cycle VMs in batches so reclamation doesn’t spike cluster latency.
Container Platform: Preventing Supervisor Failures Caused by Proxy Image Repo Access
Use an Orchestrator workflow to validate Supervisor image repository connectivity before configuration changes.
Storage Architecture: Prechecking vSAN Disk Eligibility Before VCF Fleet Deployment
Use Orchestrator to precheck vSAN disk eligibility and stale partitions before VCF deployment workflows hit hard-stop validation errors.
Network & Security: Automating NSX Manager Reboot Readiness for Upgrade Prechecks
Use Orchestrator to enforce the 'reboot within 24 hours' requirement so NSX upgrade prechecks stop failing at the worst time.
Cost Optimization: Automating VCF + vSAN License Sizing Reports with Orchestrator
Generate repeatable core and TiB license sizing outputs so entitlement planning stays accurate as clusters grow.
Container Platform: Preventing VKS Disk Pressure with an Orchestrated Image Prune Runbook
Use Orchestrator to trigger a controlled container image prune runbook when VKS worker nodes hit DiskPressure.
Infrastructure Automation: Enforcing the VCF 9 Upgrade Order with an Orchestrator Gate
Use an Aria Orchestrator gate workflow to enforce VCF 9 component upgrade order before any change window starts.
Hybrid Operations: Fixing VCF Operations 9 License Entitlement Drift with Orchestrator
Automate a daily license entitlement audit so vCenter + vSAN add-on licensing doesn’t silently break VCF Operations views.
vSAN Stretched Cluster Configuration - Site Affinity and Failure Scenarios
Stretched cluster deployments require witness host placement, site affinity rules, and automated failover orchestration
Windows Server 2025 Guest OS Configuration in vSphere Virtual Hardware
Virtual hardware version 20 on ESXi 8.0.3 introduces native Windows Server 2025 support, while versions 19 and 21 require Windows Server 2022 selection as workaround
vSAN ReadyNode Hardware Requirements Reduction - TCO Impact Analysis
November 2025 ReadyNode profile updates reduce RAM requirements by 50% for HCI-MED and HCI-LRG profiles, enabling significant cost optimization
VMware Tools CVE-2025-41244 - Local Privilege Escalation Mitigation
SDMP plugin vulnerability in VMware Tools 12.4.0 requires upgrade to 12.5.4 for VMs managed by Aria Operations
vSAN Infrastructure Cost Optimization - Data-Driven Hardware Rightsizing
Production telemetry analysis enables 30-40% TCO reduction through ReadyNode profile updates and reduced licensing requirements
Cross-Switch vMotion - VDS to NSX-T Network Migration
vMotion between VDS and NSX-T virtual switches requires Spoofguard management and network policy translation
VCF Diagnostics Multi-Source Finding Verification and Triage
VCF diagnostics findings require correlation with vCenter alarms and Aria Operations alerts to reduce false positive operational noise
VMware Identity Manager CSP-102092 Patch - Coordinated Upgrade Sequencing
vIDM 3.3.7 and Aria Suite Lifecycle 8.18.0 Patch 5 require sequential deployment with service dependency awareness
ESXi Host Configuration Profiles - Automated Drift Remediation
vLCM image-based clusters detect configuration drift and enable automated remediation for compliance enforcement
vSAN File Services Architecture - Stateless Container Resilience
vSAN File Services supports 500 shares per cluster with containerized protocol services for SMB and NFS resilience
NSX Network Introspection End of Availability - Migration to vDefend Firewall
Network Introspection for Security feature discontinued after NSX 4.2.x, requiring migration planning to vDefend Advanced Threat Prevention
Aria Operations Custom Dashboards - Multi-Cluster Performance Correlation
Custom dashboard creation aggregates metrics across VCF domains for unified infrastructure visibility and capacity planning
Tanzu Application Platform on VCF - Supply Chain Integration
TAP supply chains automate container build, test, and deployment workflows on VCF Kubernetes infrastructure
VCF Workload Domain Sizing - Compute and Storage Capacity Planning
Domain sizing methodology balances fault tolerance requirements against licensing efficiency and hardware utilization
Kubernetes Persistent Volumes on vSAN - CSI Driver Integration
vSAN CSI driver enables policy-based storage provisioning for Kubernetes with first-class volume visibility in vCenter
vSAN 9.0 Express Storage Architecture - Global Deduplication and Replication
vSAN 9.0 introduces software-defined global deduplication achieving 8x capacity reduction and vSAN-to-vSAN replication for simplified DR
VCF Automated Lifecycle Management - Bundle Deployment Orchestration
SDDC Manager bundle deployments require pre-flight validation, sequential domain upgrades, and health check gating
VCF 5.0 Upgrade Prerequisites - NSX Federation and WCP Dependencies
VCF 4.x to 5.0 upgrades require version uniformity validation, Enhanced Linked Mode considerations, and NSX Federation sequencing
NSX Distributed Firewall Rule Optimization - Microsegmentation Performance
DFW rule ordering and grouping strategies reduce rule evaluation latency and improve east-west traffic performance
NSX and vCenter Security Updates - VMSA-2025-0016 Vulnerability Remediation
Critical vulnerabilities CVE-2025-41250, CVE-2025-41251, CVE-2025-41252 require coordinated patching across NSX Manager clusters and edge nodes