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Automating counting cores & TiBs for new VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF) and VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) SKUs

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Happy New Year! 🥳🎉🥂

At the end of 2023, we announced two new offerings called VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF) and VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) that drastically simplifies our overall vSphere-based portfolio and licensing model.

To help our users understand the new licensing model which uses both CPU cores and TiB (for vSAN storage sizing), I have created a PowerCLI function (Get-FoundationCoreAndTiBUsage) that will inventory your existing vSphere environment and provide a detailed report on the number of CPU Core and/or TiB license count that would be required whether you are considering the VVF or VCF offering.


For those familiar with my previous versions of the vSphere and vSphere+ core counting scripts, this function works in a very similar manner with the output configurable using either console or outputting it to an excel spreadsheet for further processing. For more details on the calculations, where to download and how to use the PowerCLI function, please see VMware KB 95927.

Dynamically generate custom vSAN ESA HCL JSON for VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 5.1

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I recently shared on how you can deploy the latest VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 5.1 release with vSAN Express Storage Architecture (ESA) using Nested ESXi and leveraging a custom vSAN ESA HCL JSON file, which I had created to workaround the required vSAN ESA pre-check during the VCF Bringup process.

I will admit, I actually did not the create the custom vSAN ESA HCL JSON file manually, it was auto-generated using automation 😉

My initial goal was to make it easier for anyone to play with VCF 5.1 using both Nested ESXi as well any physical system that is capable but may is not on the official VMware vSAN ESA HCL. After a lot of trial and error testing with Nested ESXi, I finally had a functional PowerCLI script that can then be used to run against a standalone ESXi host to dynamically generate a compatible custom vSAN ESA HCL JSON file that can then be used with both VCF 5.1 with vSAN ESA or even a standalone vCenter Server deployment for vSAN ESA enablement.

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vSphere Code Capture is your ChatGPT for vSphere Automation

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Have you ever tried to automate a specific vSphere operation but were sure which vSphere API to use or if known, how to actually use it? This is something I frequently see and get asked about quite often!

Did you know about this hidden little gem that has been available since vSphere 6.7, built right into the vSphere UI that can help with these questions!?


It is called vSphere Code Capture or what I typically refer to as your ChatGPT for vSphere Automation, but without the hallucinations 😀

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