Author: Aaron Rombaut

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Real World Use of VMware Bundle Transfer Utility

Overview

I work in a lot of air-gapped networks and unfortunately, that comes with an extra level of effort for nearly every task. In the world of VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF), SDDC Manager is used to perform a lot of the maintenance tasks through Lifecycle Manager. When it comes times to perform upgrades, however, not having direct access to the Internet requires use of the Bundle Transfer Utility. More information about this utility can be found in the VMware Documentation.

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VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle: VMware Identity Manager (vIDM)

Overview

While VMware by Broadcom is a thing and Workspace ONE Access is supposedly the new name for VMware Identity Manager, you will find the Easy Installer still refers to it as VMware Identity Manager. So while there are many identity crises happening, the one crisis this post will illustrate is how to deploy the Lifecycle Manager as well as a clustered VMware Identity Manager instance.

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VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF): SFTP

Overview

If you are reading this, I bet you are trying to get your SDDC Manager configured to do backups via SFTP…and it’s just not working. You keep seeing a similar message in SDDC Manager, even though you are using all the correct configuration information.

Invalid parameter: Validation failed for directory path <configured backup directory> on server <Host FQDN or IP>. Make sure backup directory is intact and sftp server has write permissions on backup path .

I feel your frustration; this took way more effort than necessary to figure out and get configured. Also, why would the sftp server need write permissions on the backup path? (hint: it doesn’t — this is just a poorly written message) If I had to guess, I would think it is supposed to refer to the sftp user, not the server.

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VMware Cloud Director: Deployment and Initial Configuration

Overview

I stood up a nested VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) lab and decided to delve into the world of VMware Cloud Director. I ran into a couple issues and wanted to make sure that I documented them here so that I do not run into them again in the future. I have a good feeling that this will be the first of many posts regarding this technology.

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The Frugal Administrator: A Minimal Nested VMware VCF Lab

Overview

I have other posts on my site here for more built out installations of VMware VCF. However, while I was researching a build script for a recent nested installation I was building, I came across a post on William Lam’s website about a single host VMware VCF install. This surely piqued my interest and I decided I would give this a go and document all the pieces I have found in my research and own learning.

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Nested VMware NSX

Disclaimer:

While I worked for VMware from March 2019 and up until the Broadcom acquisition in November 2023, and continued on with Broadcom, this post (and website as a whole) is solely for my purposes and in no way represents VMware or Broadcom’s views or best practices. Heck, for all I know, this is accidentally working in my lab. Either way, VMware nor Broadcom are officially backing this post.

Introduction

It’s odd to me that I have been a part of the virtual world for quite a while now and have just finally come to terms that I really should figure out the basics of VMware NSX. With Broadcom’s shift to pushing VMware VCF, this just makes sense. However, even with a Cisco CCNA certification under my belt for the last seven years and working with networking equipment for the past ten years, VMware NSX continues to confuse me and only recently am I starting to make sense of it.

Hopefully this post will help others out there that are trying to learn VMware NSX and the nuances that go long with it, especially in a nested lab.

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