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Quick Tip - Retry VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) deployment with modified bringup spec

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During a VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) bringup, where VMware Cloud Builder is performing deploying the VCF Management Domain, unforeseen issues can occur. Within the Cloud Builder UI or API, if a particular task had failed, you can easily retry the deployment without having to start all over again, which is certainly something I have benefited more than once!

When you retry the bringup workflow, it is using the original bringup specification which from the Cloud Builder UI can either be the VCF Deployment Workbook (XLS) or VCF Deployment Spec (JSON), which is to be expected as you are attempting to retry the exact same deployment.

However, in some cases you might need to adjust the bringup specification or if you made a typo but this is typically not allowed during a retry operation and would require a complete re-deployment. While deploying the newest VCF 5.1 release, I was testing out a new deployment scenario where I needed to append additional entries into the VCF Deployment JSON spec and I came to learn from one of our Engineers that I did not have to blow away the setup, but that I could retry using a modified bringup spec when using the Cloud Builder API!

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New detailed GuestOS data in vSphere 8.0 Update 2

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Your workloads are constantly changing both from an application standpoint but also the underlying guest operating system (GuestOS) including patches and upgrades. While many organizations have a change management database (CMDB), it can still be a challenge to true up that information from when the workload was first deployed to what it is currently running.

Back in 2019, VMware enhanced VMware Tools to make it easier to identify applications and processes that was running within a VM and this also provided a programmatic way for retrieving this inventory information which could then be fed back into their CMDB.

Applications are not the only things that change inside of a VM, the GuestOS probably receives the most updates (patches/upgrades) and being able to accurately inventory this information without relying on an in-guest agent is still a challenge for many.

In vSphere 8.0 Update 2, we have enhanced the available GuestOS data using VMware Tools and we have also made it easier to inventory and collect this information even when the VM has been powered off.

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VMware Flings Update

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This has been a difficult week for all VMware employees due to the pending acquisition of VMware by Broadcom. Many VMware employees are still waiting to hear back from Broadcom about their employment status either before and/or after the planned acquisition close date. I wanted to provide this context before sharing a quick update regarding the VMware Flings program.

On Tuesday October 24th, VMware Fling authors was made aware that the VMware Flings site (flings.vmware.com) would be taken down and website would simply be redirected to developer.vmware.com/samples starting on Thursday October 26th.

The VMware Flings program was operated and run by VMware's Office of the CTO (OCTO) and while I do not have specifics on why it needed to go down, I tried my best to share out the news as broadly and as quickly as I could so that folks could at least grab what they needed. While the original notice mentioned the site would function up until 10/26 at 5pm PST, it looks VMware IT had already made the DNS changes and the redirect has already been propagated.

As of right now, I do not know the future of the VMware Flings program, but I did want to share a few updates since the site and its downloads are no longer available.

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