January was a good month for me as I started the Python 100DaysOfCode challenge but the VMware engineers also did plenty of work. Seven flingss received an update and it looks like we have a single new release.
New Release
Updates
Demo Appliance for Tanzu Kubernetes Grid
vSphere Software Asset Management Tool
New Releases
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Desktop Container Tools
Desktop Container Tools is a free tool that allows you to do basic management of vctl (a CLI tool shipped with VMware Fusion) container engine on macOS for running containers and Kubernetes clusters.
Features
- Easy&Access
Handy management of vctl container engine through the user interface and Touch Bar. Configure your virtual machines for containers and Kubernetes cluster without CLI.
- Multi-language Support
Currently support English & Simplified Chinese. More languages are underway.
- Light & Free
It’s light and it’s free.
Updated Flings
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Demo Appliance for Tanzu Kubernetes Grid
The Demo Appliance for Tanzu Kubernetes Grid is a sample appliance to help customers to learn and deploy Tanzu Kubernetes Grid.
Changelog
Jan 05, 2021 – v1.2.1
- Support for latest TKG 1.2.1 release
- Support for TKG Workload Cluster upgrade workflow from K8s 1.18.10 to 1.19.3
- Updated embedded Harbor to use self-sign TLS certificate (new feature of TKG 1.2.1)
- Updated to latest version of Harbor (2.1.2)
Known Issue:
DNS resolution issue when installing TKG Extensions. Workaround is to add the following snippet to kapp-controller.yaml
volumeMounts: - mountPath: /etc/hosts name: etc subPath: hosts volumes: - name: etc hostPath: path: /etc
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Power vRA Cloud
PowervRA Cloud is a PowerShell module that abstracts the VMware vRealize Automation Cloud APIs to a set of easily used PowerShell functions. This tool provides a comprehensive command line environment for managing your VMware vRealize Automation Cloud environment.
Changelog
Version 1.3
- 4 x New Cmdlets for VMC
- 5 x New Cmdlets for AWS
- Powershell 7 on Windows Support
- Bugfixes
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DRS Dump Insight
DRS Dump Insight is a portal that vSPhere administrators can use to analyze why DRS performed actions.
Changelog
Version 2.0
- Added support for 7.0 and 7.0U1 dumps.
- Toggle added for selective analysis of all full dumps.
- Bug fixes and backend improvements
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vSphere Software Asset Management Tool
The vSphere Software Asset Management (vSAM) is a tool that collects and summarizes vSphere product deployment information. It calls on vSphere APIs for deployment data and produces a PDF report that the customer can consult as a part of their infrastructure review and planning process. This lightweight Java application runs on Windows, Linux or Mac OS.
Changelog
Version 1.3 Update
- Show Tanzu products in the report.
- Bug fixes.
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VMware OS Optimization Tool
Building a new golden image? Use the OS Optimizer tool to let it perform better but please test test test if all your apps are working.
Changelog
January 2021, b2001 Bug Fixes
- All optimization entries have been added back into the main user template. This allows manual tuning and selection of all optimizations.
- Fixed two hardware acceleration selections were not previously controlled by the Common Option for Visual Effect to disable hardware acceleration.
Optimize
- During an Optimize, the optimization selections are automatically exported to a default json file (%ProgramData%\VMware\OSOT\OptimizedTemplateData.json).
Analyze
- When an Analyze is run, if the default json file exists (meaning that this image has already been optimized), this is imported and used to select the optimizations and the Common Options selections with the previous choices.
- If the default selections are required, on subsequent runs of the OS Optimization Tool, delete the default json file, relaunch the tool and run Analyze.
Command Line
- The OptimizedTemplateData.json file can also be used from the command line with the -applyoptimization parameter.
Optimizations
- Changed entries for Hyper-V services to not be selected by default. These services are required for VMs deployed onto Azure. Windows installation sets these to manual (trigger) so these so not cause any overhead on vSphere, when left with the default setting.
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Workspace ONE Discovery
VMware Workspace ONE UEM is used to manage Windows 10 endpoints, whether it be Certificate Management, Application Deployment or Profile Management. The Discovery Fling enables you to view these from the device point of view and review the Workspace ONE related services, which applications have been successfully deployed, use the granular view to see exactly what has been configured with Profiles, view User & Machine certificates and see which Microsoft Windows Updates have been applied.
Changelog
January 14, 2021 – Version 1.1
- Updated application icon (ICO)
- Monitoring the VMware Horizon Client, VMware Digital Experience Telemetry and VMware Hub Health services
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Python Client for VMC on AWS
Python Client for VMware Cloud on AWS is an open-source Python-based tool. Written in Python, the tool enables VMware Cloud on AWS users to automate the consumption of their VMware Cloud on AWS SDDC.
Changelog
Version 1.2
- Added a Dockerfile to build a Docker image to run PyVMC
- Added Egress counters visibility
- Added routing table visibility
- Added L2VPN support
- Added Nested Group support
