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Quick Tip - Accessing the VM Console for VMs deployed using vSphere with Tanzu VM Service

05.20.2021 by William Lam // 2 Comments

One constraint of the new vSphere with Tanzu VM Service, which was introduced in vSphere 7.0 Update 2a is that the VM Console of the deployed VM is not accessible by end users including vSphere Administrators.


When things are working fine, this is generally not needed but when something goes wrong such as debugging or troubleshooting guest customization or networking issues, then having access to the VM Console is a must! In speaking with the VM Service PM, this is already being tracked in their backlog and hopefully we will have a solution for this in the future.

For now, there is a quick workaround which I have personally used it myself while deploying Nested ESXi VMs using the VM Service. Since this question has come up a few times now, I wanted to document the specific instructions and make it easy for anyone who may have a need for this. 100% Credit goes to Florian Grehl who shared this solution on his blog but on a completely unrelated topic.

UPDATE (05/20/21) - Florian also shared via Twitter, another and quicker way to access the VM Console is if you have direct ESXi host access, you can access the VM Console that way as well. I am usually logged into vCenter Server anyhow, so I prefer method outlined below.

[Read more...]

Categories // VMware Tanzu Tags // vSphere Kubernetes Service

Community Networking Driver for ESXi Fling v1.2

05.19.2021 by William Lam // Leave a Comment

The Community Networking Driver for ESXi Fling v1.2 has just been released and adds the following new capabilities:

  • Support for Jumbo Frames (MTU up to 9000)
  • Support for Wake-on-LAN (WOL) for Intel i225 NIC

Categories // ESXi Tags // Fling

JSON configuration to deploy VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) with secondary VDS

05.18.2021 by William Lam // 4 Comments

I recently spent some time exploring VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) using VMware Cloud Builder, which is a tool that automates the entire VCF deployment and configuration when provided a set of ESXi hosts that meet all the pre-requisites. To begin a VCF deployment, users will typically provide a VCF deployment parameter workbook (XLS) which contains the configuration for your deployment which is then uploaded to Cloud Builder (UI or API).


I personally prefer the JSON option which Cloud Builder also supports, which for me is much easier to read and edit. For those interested, after submitting your XLS document, you can retrieve the generated JSON configuration file in the Cloud Builder filesystem located in /tmp/sddcspec-[UUID].json.

While working on some automation, I needed to separate out the ESXi and NSX-T networking, which by default is configured using a single Distributed Virtual Switch (VDS). This is a common configuration pattern for environments that only have two network adapters. However, if you have up to four network adapters, VCF can also support another deployment configuration where two VDS are used. I came to learn about this while talking to one of the Cloud Builder Tech Leads and shared the required JSON configuration changes to support this model.

Below is the JSON snippet for the required dvsSpecs section that demonstrates the use of a dual VDS configuration where NSX-T networking makes use of the additional vmnics.

[Read more...]

Categories // VMware Cloud Foundation Tags // VMware Cloud Foundation

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William is Distinguished Platform Engineering Architect in the VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) Division at Broadcom. His primary focus is helping customers and partners build, run and operate a modern Private Cloud using the VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) platform.

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Recent

  • VCF 9.1 - Deploying VCF Automation (VCFA) to non-Management Network 06/05/2026
  • VCF 9.1 - Deploying VCF Management Services (VCFMS) to non-Management Network during VCF Upgrade 06/03/2026
  • VCF 9.1 - Side-loading VCF binaries into VCF Installer & Fleet Depot Service for Air-Gapped Environments 06/02/2026
  • VCF 9.1 - VMUG x Intel x Micron Collaboration on Single VCF Host Deployment for VMUG Connect 06/01/2026
  • VCF 9.1 - Deploying VCF Management Services (VCFMS) with Custom IP Allocation using SDDC Manager API 05/31/2026
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