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10 Exciting Enhancements in VMware Cloud Foundation 9.1.1

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This has been an exciting week as VMware Explore 2026 takes place in Las Vegas, where I have been meeting with customers and partners while delivering several technical breakout sessions and workshops. To coincide with the event, we have also announced the general availability of VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.1.1, the first maintenance release for VCF 9.1! 🥳

Note: While there is no defined patch sequence for maintenance and EPs, there is a special exception that you should be aware specifically for VCF 9.1.1 release which will have a couple of specific sequence that must be followed (pre-checks already built into the release). These exceptions will be removed in a future maintenance release, but just something to be aware of

  • Fleet LCM must be patched to 9.1.1 before updating other VCF components to 9.1.1
  • VCFMS must be updated to 9.1.1 before updating Identity broker, Salt Master/RaaS component to 9.1.1
  • VCF Automation (VCFA) must be updated to 9.1.1 before updating VCD Migrator component to 9.1.1

As a maintenance release, it includes all cumulative bug fixes and security updates from previous Express Patches (EPs), along with platform stability improvements and enhancements that simplify the journey to VCF 9.1.

While there are many improvements in this release, here are ten that I think are worth highlighting.

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VCF 9.1.1: Adopting the Reduced VCF Management Services (VCFMS) Footprint After an Upgrade

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When VCF Management Services (VCFMS) was introduced in VCF 9.1.0, its virtual machine sizing was optimized to accommodate the largest optional Day-N service. This reduced the likelihood of requiring a rollout to a larger VM size as additional services were enabled. However, for environments that did not deploy these optional Day-N services, some VCFMS virtual machines could be larger than necessary.

With VCF 9.1.1, VCFMS sizing has been optimized for the initial Day-0 deployment. In addition, individual VCFMS components have been further right-sized to ensure that each service reserves only the resources it requires, improving overall resource utilization. For example, a Simple (non-HA) deployment, you will now have one less VCFMS Worker Node (12 vCPU / 24GB memory).


It is important to note that the right-sized VCFMS worker nodes and component sizing are automatically applied for new VCF 9.1.1 deployments, but they are not automatically applied to existing deployments that are upgraded to VCF 9.1.1.

With that said, users who upgrade to VCF 9.1.1 can still realize the benefits of the reduced VCFMS footprint by running a post-upgrade script that produces the same end state as a new VCF 9.1.1 deployment.
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Configuring OIDC with PKCE in Keycloak for VCF Private AI Services

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I have taken a short hiatus from playing with my NVIDIA RTX 4000, which fits perfectly inside a Minisforum MS-A2 and is what I use to run VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.1. While redeploying my environment to test an upcoming release of VCF Private AI Services (PAIS), I was reminded that the deployment requires an OIDC provider that supports the Authorization Code grant flow with PKCE (Proof Key for Code Exchange).

When I originally deployed PAIS with VCF 9.0, I used Authentik as my identity provider (IdP). With my VCF Infrastructure Services (VIS) Appliance which provides a number of services including Keycloak as an OIDC provider, I wanted to figure out the required Keycloak configuration to satisfy the PAIS OIDC requirements, especially as this can help accelerate Lab/PoC deployments.

After some trial and error, and with the help of OpenAI Codex to debug my live environment, I now have Keycloak successfully configured with PAIS, along with a script to generate the access token required to interact with a PAIS Model Endpoint! 🥳

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