Blog

Latest insights, tutorials, and best practices for VMware Cloud Foundation

VCF 9.1 and the Cost of Complexity: When Unified Operations Stops Feeling Unified NEW

When VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 was introduced, the message felt pretty clear: VCF Operations was becoming the centralized operational experience for the platform. For those of us who have worked...

Read Full Article

VCF 9.1 VCF Operations VMware Cloud Foundation

Deploying VCF Automation in the Lab: The Primary VIP Lesson That Tripped Me Up

I deployed VCF Automation in my lab yesterday, and one thing became obvious pretty quickly: this is not the same mental model I had from the older Aria Automation days. The product name is familia...

Read Full Article

VMware Cloud Foundation VCF Automation VCF 9

Broadcom Announces VMware Cloud Foundation 9.1: A Private Cloud Release Built Around AI, Efficiency, and Resilience

Broadcom announced VMware Cloud Foundation 9.1 today, and while the version number makes it sound like a normal point release, the messaging around this one is much bigger than that. Broadcom is a...

Read Full Article

VMware Cloud Foundation VCF 9.1 Private AI

I Passed the VCP-VCF Administrator Exam — Why I Took It

Quick update I recently passed the VCP-VCF Administrator exam, and for me this one was less about chasing another certification and more about getting current. Most of my career has been centered...

Read Full Article

VCP VCP-VCF Administrator VMware Cloud Foundation

Breaking ELM Between Two VCF Instances to Restore a Supported Upgrade Path

Introduction Most VMware Cloud Foundation upgrade blockers look like lifecycle problems—version mismatches, failed prechecks, or sequencing issues. This one wasn’t. The environment was fully fun...

Read Full Article

VCF VMware Cloud Foundation vCenter

Planning a VCF 9 Upgrade: Why We Broke It Into Phases

Upgrading to VMware Cloud Foundation 9 sounds fairly straightforward when you first talk about it at a high level. There is a supported path, a target version, and a general sequence of components ...

Read Full Article

VMware Cloud Foundation VCF 9 Upgrade Planning

Distributed Power Management: The VMware Feature Most Enterprises Never Used

Introduction Distributed Power Management (DPM) has been part of vSphere since the early days, but it’s one of those features that almost no one in enterprise environments ever turned on. The idea ...

Read Full Article

vSphere VCF Automation

Aria Operations 8.18.5 Upgrade to VCF Operations 9.0.2 (Lab Field Notes)

Over the last week or so, I upgraded our lab Aria Operations (vROps) 8.18.5 to VCF Operations 9.0.2. For the most part it went smoothly, but I hit a couple of issues that are worth calling out. Do...

Read Full Article

vcf vcf-operations aria-operations

NSX Deployments Failing Due to Expired OVF Certificate

🎉 First article of the new year — Happy 2026. Wishing you a year of projects completed successfully, on time, and on budget. I’m looking forward to learning and sharing what’s new as VMware Cloud F...

Read Full Article

nsx security vcf

Upgrading from VCF 5.2 to VCF 9.x

Upgrading from VCF 5.2 to VCF 9.x Field Notes from a Live Lab Upgrade This is not a how-to guide. This is not a success story written after the dust settles. This is a set of field notes from a ...

Read Full Article

vcf vcf9 upgrade

Mastering CIS Remediation at Scale: Inside My ESXi Hardening Script

Includes Downloadable Script Why I Built This CIS alignment is easy to talk about and hard to operationalize. At any real scale, the problem isn’t “what setting should this be?” — the problem ...

Read Full Article

esxi cis compliance

NSX-T Segment Automation: Policy API Patterns That Don’t Break

Executive summary: Here’s the Segment pattern I actually use in production. It’s idempotent (safe to rerun), pins the segment to the right Transport Zone, and wires it to Tier-1 (or Tier-0) without...

Read Full Article

nsx-t policy-api segments

VCF 9 Part 1 — Design Considerations: Instances, Fleets, Private Clouds, Fault Domains & DR

VCF 9 clarifies Private Cloud → Fleet → Instance and offers two resilience patterns: Site-HA across zones and DR across regions.

Read Full Article

VCF 9 VMware Cloud Foundation Fleet

Upgrading to Aria Ops 8.18.5? It’s not as easy as you may think.

Upgrading to Aria Ops 8.18.5? It’s not as easy as you may think. VMware recently released a security update for Aria Ops (vRops for the old school guys out there…which is how I’m going to refer to...

Read Full Article

aria-operations vcf lcm

Aria Operations 8.18.5 — Pre-Req Upgrade Process (KB)

Lead This runbook upgrades Aria Operations to 8.18.5 by first updating vIDM and Aria Suite Lifecycle (LCM) during the same maintenance window. It’s written for Operations Level 1 with exact step...

Read Full Article

aria-operations vcf lcm

URGENT: Aria Operations & VMware Tools Updates — VMSA-2025-0015

Heads-up for VCF & Aria Ops teams: Broadcom released VMSA-2025-0015 covering three vulnerabilities across Aria Operations and VMware Tools. There are no workarounds — patch to the fixed vers...

Read Full Article

Aria Operations VMware Tools VCF

Automate CIS baseline remediations: SSH logon banner & watchdog policy

So recently we went through a CIS audit. We use vROps (VCF Ops now) compliance module to audit our environment. Some of the items that we are remediating include turning on some simple items, like...

Read Full Article

Automation PowerCLI

VCF 9.0: New Features and Capabilities Overview

VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 brings significant enhancements to automation, security, and hybrid cloud capabilities. Here's what you need to know.

Read Full Article

VCF VMware Cloud Foundation

Welcome to VCF Insider

Welcome to VCF Insider, your comprehensive resource for VMware Cloud Foundation insights, best practices, and expert guidance.

Read Full Article

VCF VMware Cloud Foundation

NSX-T Network Automation: Best Practices for VCF Environments

Learn how to automate NSX-T network operations in VCF environments using APIs, PowerShell, and best practices for scalable network management.

Read Full Article

NSX-T Automation Networking

VCF Security Hardening: A Comprehensive Guide

Learn essential security hardening techniques for VMware Cloud Foundation to protect your private cloud infrastructure from threats and ensure compliance.

Read Full Article

VCF Security Hardening