Scott Lowe

NOVEMBER 25, 2020

Open source has become so critical to so many aspects of our computing infrastructure. Uh oh… more hardware exploits. I recently stumbled across Ricardo Sueiras’ “AWS open source news and updates” posts. VMware finally splits VMware Tools out from vSphere. Good stuff here!

Linux 60

Linux Vmware Open Source Examples 60

Scott Lowe

MAY 27, 2022

Servers/Hardware. marks the first release of the open source container orchestration platform that is signed using Sigstore (more details here ). For relevant storage news, I’d recommend having a look at J Metz’ Storage Short Take 42. network virtualization). Cloud Computing/Cloud Management.

Virtualization 79

Virtualization Storage Programming Network 79

Scott Lowe

JANUARY 19, 2018

This is pretty cool: a WYSIWYG topology designer for VMware NSX. Servers/Hardware. The VMware Cloud-Native Apps group has a breakdown of some of the new features/functionality found in the 1.9 Via Maish Saidel-Keesing, I saw this post about 10 open source Kubernetes tools for highly effective SRE and Ops teams.

Vmware 60

Vmware Open Source Linux Cloud 60

Scott Lowe

MARCH 23, 2017

Servers/Hardware. As opposed to just encrypting data at the transport level (although Acra does that between components of its architecture) or just encrypting data at the storage level (using an encrypted file system or similar), Acra targets encrypting data at the table/row/column level within a database. Check back next time!

Open Source 60

Open Source Storage Vmware Network 60

Scott Lowe

JANUARY 14, 2016

Cumulus VX, if you aren’t aware, is a community-supported virtual appliance version of Cumulus Linux aimed at helping folks preview and test “full-blown” Cumulus Linux (which, of course, requires compatible hardware). Servers/Hardware. Dwayne Sinclair (an NSX SE at VMware) has a write-up on what micro-segmentation is not.

Vmware 60

Vmware Devops Storage Linux 60

Scott Lowe

OCTOBER 5, 2018

Servers/Hardware. The big news in the hardware space recently was the article regarding the purported Chinese hardware supply chain attack. Of the (innumerable) articles commenting on the hardware hack, this article by Joe FitzPatrick and this ErrataSec article caught my eye. This has generated a lot of discussion.

Hardware 60

Hardware Open Source Vmware Linux 60

Scott Lowe

JANUARY 27, 2023

Servers/Hardware What do you think of the ThinkPhone ? Rory McCune shares some information on configuring Caddy , a Go-based open source web server. Storage Stephen Wagner discusses a situation in which all VMs are inaccessible after graceful cluster shutdown and restart. to version 8.0.

Programming 90

Programming Open Source Cloud Devops 90

Scott Lowe

NOVEMBER 7, 2014

Servers/Hardware. While all the attention is “up the stack,” there are still some occasions when you need to worry about the details in the hardware. Nice use of VMware Fusion in part 2, by the way.). VMware, Vagrant, and Docker together is the subject of this blog post by Fabio Rapposelli. Virtualization.

Vmware 69

Vmware Linux Storage Virtualization 69

Scott Lowe

DECEMBER 29, 2016

Servers/Hardware. Michael Preston shares his thoughts on containers in a post titled “A VMware guy’s perspective on containers.” I know that a lot of my readers are VMware-centric in their jobs and careers, so I think Michael’s post may be helpful to a lot of folks. Nothing this time around! Way to go, Daniel! Virtualization.

Vmware 60

Vmware Linux Open Source Data Center 60

Scott Lowe

JANUARY 28, 2016

And while we are on the topic of Linux and open source in the networking industry…read this entertaining and informative article on the importance of (truly) open source libraries in networking. Servers/Hardware. The project itself is open source and hosted on GitHub. Per the README.md Hint, hint.).

Vmware 60

Vmware Linux Open Source Devops 60

Scott Lowe

DECEMBER 8, 2016

This is an interesting project to watch, I think—it’s porting OVN (Open Virtual Network) from a “traditional” OvS back-end to an IOVisor-based back-end (IOVisor implements the data plane in eBPF). Servers/Hardware. I noted that a Vagrant provider for vRealize Automation was recently released as an open source project.

Vmware 60

Vmware Storage Intel Virtualization 60

Scott Lowe

APRIL 22, 2014

The vendors may vary in their approach to providing this automation and orchestration—some may prefer to do it in software (VMware would be one of these, along with other software companies like Microsoft and Red Hat), while others want to do it in hardware. Thinking About Open Source. Group Policy Resources.

Policies 60

Policies Open Source Vmware Data Center 60

Scott Lowe

APRIL 27, 2018

VMware has released a PowerCLI preview/fling for NSX-T; Kyle Ruddy has a write-up here. Cilium, the open source project working to bring eBPF-powered networking and security to Kubernetes environments, has hit the 1.0 Servers/Hardware. VMware has launched a SIG for Kubernetes on VMware. Networking.

Vmware 60

Vmware Storage Open Source Security 60

Scott Lowe

MARCH 17, 2016

I recently came across a couple useful troubleshooting guides, one for Open vSwitch (OVS) and OpenStack Neutron and one for VMware NSX. Matt Oswalt recently unveiled (and open sourced) a framework called ToDD, which stands for “Testing on Demand: Distributed”. Servers/Hardware. VMware recently GA’d version 6.2

Vmware 60

Vmware Linux Network Open Source 60

Scott Lowe

JANUARY 14, 2016

Cumulus VX, if you aren’t aware, is a community-supported virtual appliance version of Cumulus Linux aimed at helping folks preview and test “full-blown” Cumulus Linux (which, of course, requires compatible hardware). Servers/Hardware. Dwayne Sinclair (an NSX SE at VMware) has a write-up on what micro-segmentation is not.

Devops 60

Devops Vmware Storage Open Source 60

Scott Lowe

FEBRUARY 9, 2018

Sam McGeown has a nice diagram of the communications channels between the various VMware NSX components. Servers/Hardware. Nick Korte shares some “lessons learned” as his team explored VMware vSAN as a storage solution. Ed Haletky has an updated Linux version of the VMware Software Manager.

Vmware 60

Vmware Linux Network Storage 60

Scott Lowe

JULY 5, 2019

Servers/Hardware. Although I’ve by and large moved away from Apple hardware (I still have a MacBook Pro running macOS that sees very little use, and a Mac Pro running Fedora), I did see this article regarding a new keyboard for the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro. Mischa Buijs reviews using a SATADOM boot device with VMware ESXi.

Storage 60

Storage Hardware Open Source Vmware 60

Scott Lowe

APRIL 15, 2022

Xavier Avrillier walks readers through using Antrea (a Kubernetes CNI built on top of Open vSwitch—a topic I’ve touched on a time or two) to provide on-premise load balancing in Kubernetes. Servers/Hardware. Cabling is hardware, right? Steven Bright shows how to deploy Salt minions automatically using VMware Tools.

Linux 74

Linux Load Balancer IPv6 Licensing 74

Scott Lowe

MAY 9, 2014

Rob Sherwood, CTO of Big Switch, recently published a reasonably in-depth look at “modern OpenFlow” implementations and how they can leverage multiple tables in hardware. Connecting Docker containers to Open vSwitch is one thing, but what about using Docker containers to run Open vSwitch in userspace?

Vmware 60

Vmware Storage HP Virtualization 60

Scott Lowe

JANUARY 17, 2020

Servers/Hardware. Guiliano Bertello introduces PowerVCF , a PowerCLI module aimed at interacting with the SDDC Manager and VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) stack. (If Now I really want to see hardware security key support in the desktop and mobile apps! If you’re not familiar with VCF, see here.). Time to get patching, folks!

Load Balancer 60

Load Balancer Vmware Windows Cloud 60

Scott Lowe

MAY 4, 2017

Mircea’s right—bugs will happen in all software (VMware NSX has had its share, for example), but the key is in how it’s handled. Doug Youd of Cumulus has an excellent 3-part series on the use of LACP in VMware vSphere environments. Servers/Hardware. This article gives an overview and brief introduction to eBPF. Virtualization.

Vmware 60

Vmware Storage Network Examples 60

Scott Lowe

OCTOBER 14, 2017

Romain Decker has an “under the hood” look at the VMware NSX load balancer. Servers/Hardware. I’ll keep an eye open for links to include next time around. The popular open source container registry project, Harbor , has released a new version (version 1.2). Nothing this time (sorry!).

Load Balancer 60

Load Balancer Vmware Hardware Open Source 60

Scott Lowe

FEBRUARY 24, 2018

VMware recently released a reference design guide for NSX-T; see here for more details. Servers/Hardware. Dimitri de Swart has a write-up on LAMP stacks made easy with VMware and Puppet. Jesse Hu has shared a Helm chart for deploying VMware’s open source Harbor registry. I hope it proves useful!

Vmware 60

Vmware Load Balancer Network Open Source 60

Scott Lowe

JANUARY 28, 2016

And while we are on the topic of Linux and open source in the networking industry…read this entertaining and informative article on the importance of (truly) open source libraries in networking. Servers/Hardware. The project itself is open source and hosted on GitHub. Per the README.md Hint, hint.).

Vmware 60

Vmware Open Source Linux Devops 60

Scott Lowe

OCTOBER 5, 2012

Some folks from Nicira (now part of VMware) recently published a blog post discussing the OVSDB IETF draft (see here ). Erik Smith, notably known for his outstanding posts on storage and FCoE, takes a stab at describing some of the differences between SDN and network virtualization in this post. Servers/Hardware. Networking.

Storage 92

Storage Vmware Linux Virtualization 92

Scott Lowe

MAY 25, 2017

Servers/Hardware. John Welsh has a post on why someone might use VMware NSX. After a little time and seeing how things seem to be progressing, I realize that it creates a clear separation between the open source project formerly known as Docker (now Moby) and Docker CE/EE (the products from Docker Inc.). Virtualization.

Linux 60

Linux Open Source Network Vmware 60

Scott Lowe

MAY 25, 2017

Servers/Hardware. John Welsh has a post on why someone might use VMware NSX. After a little time and seeing how things seem to be progressing, I realize that it creates a clear separation between the open source project formerly known as Docker (now Moby) and Docker CE/EE (the products from Docker Inc.). Virtualization.

Linux 60

Linux Open Source Network Vmware 60

Scott Lowe

APRIL 19, 2019

Servers/Hardware. Tim Hinrichs discusses securing the Kubernetes API with Open Policy Agent. This article discusses four open source secrets management tools. Bahubali (Bill) Shetti walks through analyzing the cost of a self-managed Kubernetes cluster on AWS using VMware CloudHealth. configurations. Virtualization.

Open Source 60

Open Source Tools Policies Cloud 60

Scott Lowe

DECEMBER 6, 2019

The one caveat to his approach that may be worth mentioning is that some policies (a PodSecurityPolicy or the use of Open Policy Agent) may prevent the user from launching a Pod connected to the host’s network namespace. Servers/Hardware. Are you running an all-VMware shop and want to add some Kubernetes to the mix?

Vmware 60

Vmware Network Linux Hardware 60

Scott Lowe

AUGUST 8, 2014

Welcome to Technology Short Take #43, another episode in my irregularly-published series of articles, links, and thoughts from around the web, focusing on data center technologies like networking, virtualization, storage, and cloud computing. Another series on VMware NSX has popped up, this time from Jon Langemak. Servers/Hardware.

Vmware 60

Vmware Linux Virtualization Network 60

Scott Lowe

SEPTEMBER 11, 2014

This is a liveblog of IDF 2014 session DATS009, titled “Ceph: Open Source Storage Software Optimizations on Intel Architecture for Cloud Workloads.” Chagam does admit that not all workloads are suited for distributed storage solutions. Chagam turns to discussing Ceph block storage.

Open Source 61

Open Source Storage Intel Architecture 61

Scott Lowe

APRIL 8, 2013

Servers/Hardware. He describes cloud as the synthesis of many different forms of innovation within IT , pulling together things like open source, virtualization, distributed programming, NoSQL, DevOps/NoOps, distributed teams, dynamic languages, and Big Data (among others). Mounting guest disk images on the host? Virtualization.

Storage 111

Storage Vmware WAN Virtualization 111

Scott Lowe

SEPTEMBER 3, 2014

To help resolve this issue, Cumulus Networks (and possibly Metacloud, I’m not sure of their involvement yet) has release an open source project called vxfld. Servers/Hardware. VMware has a similar offering via the VMware vCloud Hybrid Service recovery-as-a-service offering. on a headless Ubuntu 14.04

Linux 60

Linux Network Vmware Disaster Recovery 60

Scott Lowe

FEBRUARY 11, 2016

Servers/Hardware. Colin Lynch gives a “first look” at the Cisco UCS Generation 3 hardware , which may be of interest if you’re a UCS customer or looking at purchasing UCS. VMware recently announced VSAN 6.2 , and along with the new release is plenty of coverage from the VMware community. Virtualization.

Vmware 60

Vmware Network Operating Systems Virtualization 60

Scott Lowe

DECEMBER 17, 2015

Looking for a step-by-step install guide for VMware NSX? Ray Budavari—who is an absolutely fantastic NSX resource—has a blog post up on the integration between VMware NSX and vRealize Automation. If you’d like to play around with Cumulus Linux but don’t have a compatible hardware switch, Cumulus VX is the answer. Networking.

Vmware 60

Vmware Linux Architecture Hardware 60

Scott Lowe

SEPTEMBER 23, 2015

Not sure if this link belongs in Networking or in Virtualization, but we’ll stick it here since it talks about VMware NSX. Here’s a three-part series on running VMware NSX on vSphere on AWS via Ravello Systems ( part 1 , part 2 , and part 3 ). Servers/Hardware. Without further ado, let’s get to the content. Networking.

Vmware 60

Vmware Cloud Windows Linux 60

Scott Lowe

JULY 14, 2015

Michael Armstrong, an SE for VMware in the UK, has a write-up on how to configure DHCP Relay in NSX 6.1. Servers/Hardware. Although slanted toward Network Functions Virtualization (NFV), this is a good article about why open source—and OpenStack, in particular—isn’t necessarily “free.”. Running vSphere 6? You’re done.

Vmware 60

Vmware Devops Virtualization Network 60