VCF 9.1 Cyber Recovery: Finding the Recovery Point You Can Trust NEW
The newest recovery point is not automatically the safest one. VCF 9.1 provides a workflow for narrowing the timeline, validating a candidate in isolation, and trying another snapshot when the evid...
Cyber Recovery: Just Because You Can Restore It Doesn't Mean You Should
Backup and disaster recovery have come a long way, but a cyber incident changes one of the assumptions we've relied on for years: a recoverable copy isn't necessarily a trustworthy one.
What “All Apps” Actually Means in VCF 9.1
After digging into VCF 9.1 at VMware Explore, the bigger story behind All Apps became clear: VCF is moving from VM-centric automation toward a provider-and-consumer private cloud model.
A Few Days at VMware Explore—and Plenty Worth Digging Into
I've spent the last few days at VMware Explore attending sessions, talking with people, and seeing some genuinely interesting things. Now I have a lot to go back through—and quite a few ideas for w...
The VCF 9.1 Upgrade Keeps Failing. Good Luck Finding Out Why.
The VCF 9.1 upgrade kept stopping, but the messages on the screen were nowhere close to the problems Support eventually found in the logs, database, and lifecycle catalog.
VCF Management Services Would Not Deploy—and Neither the Error nor the Logs Explained Why
The deployment failed with Invalid input, the logs did not explain why, and the real cause turned out to be a password requirement that should have been called out much earlier.
VCF Upgrades Are Still a Pain. This Tool Actually Helps.
The VCF Upgrade Planner does not perform the upgrade, but it takes a painful amount of manual research out of building the plan.
The Matrix Did Not Show the Full Story
SDDC Manager identified Avi / NSX ALB 22.1.6 as the blocker, but the installed version was not selectable in the matrix view we were using. GSS confirmed a direct upgrade to 31.2.1, which cleared t...
The Upgrade Plan Was Ready. Avi Was Not.
The VCF 9.0.2 management domain upgrade plan looked ready to go, until SDDC Manager's compatibility checks exposed an Avi / NSX ALB version blocker.
Introducing the VCF Insider Community
VCF Insider now has a community forum built for VMware Cloud Foundation engineers, homelab builders, and anyone working through real-world VCF deployments, troubleshooting, automation, and lessons ...
SRM, vSphere Replication, and VLR: Untangling the 9.0.4 Upgrade Path
Some upgrades are difficult because the technology is complicated.
Others are difficult because the path is not as obvious as it should be.
My recent VMware Live Recovery 9.0.4 convergence landed...
VCF 9.1 and the Cost of Complexity: When Unified Operations Stops Feeling Unified
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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 ...
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 ...
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...
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...
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 ...
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 ...
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...
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.
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...
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...
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...
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...
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.
Welcome to VCF Insider
Welcome to VCF Insider, your comprehensive resource for VMware Cloud Foundation insights, best practices, and expert guidance.
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.
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.