Category: VMware & Cloud
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Deep Learning VMs in VMware Private AI Foundation: The Data Scientist Workbench (Private AI Series, Part 10)
What a Deep Learning VM in VMware Private AI Foundation actually is, how the image is built, the first-boot steps that quietly break deployments, and when to move off it to a VKS cluster.
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Installing the NVIDIA GPU Operator and vGPU Drivers for VMware Private AI Foundation (Private AI Series, Part 9)
A practical runbook for installing the NVIDIA GPU Operator and matching vGPU host and guest drivers on VMware Private AI Foundation, with the validation checks and version-skew traps that decide whether GPUs actually schedule.
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Prepare a GPU Workload Domain for VMware Private AI Foundation (Private AI Series, Part 8)
A field-tested, bottom-up procedure for standing up a GPU-accelerated workload domain on VCF 9.0 for Private AI Foundation: firmware, the vLCM vGPU driver, Shared Direct, a single-zone Supervisor, and the mistakes that actually bite.
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VMware Private AI Reference Architecture and Sizing: A Practical Blueprint (Private AI Series, Part 7)
How to size a VMware Private AI Foundation build the right way: two-domain design, choosing the deployment model, and working from workload back to GPU hosts and BOM on VCF 9.1.
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GPU Partitioning for VMware Private AI: Choosing Between vGPU, MIG and Passthrough (Private AI Series, Part 6)
Time-sliced vGPU, MIG-backed vGPU, GPU passthrough and the new ESXi 9 Update 1 hybrid mode each fit different Private AI workloads. Here is how to design the split, with a capability matrix and a reference topology.
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Choosing the Right GPU for VMware Private AI: L40S vs H100 vs H200 vs Blackwell (Private AI Series, Part 5)
A field-tested guide to picking the GPU for VMware Private AI Foundation: how L40S, H100, H200, RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell and A100 compare, why form factor beats the model name, and a clear verdict on which to choose for RAG, inference or training.
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VMware Private AI Foundation Planning and Prerequisites: GPU Hosts, Drivers and Readiness (Private AI Series, Part 4)
A practitioner’s planning guide for VMware Private AI Foundation with NVIDIA on VCF 9: GPU host selection, the vGPU driver and GPU Operator interoperability matrix, sharing-mode choices, and the readiness checks that decide whether your first deployment lands clean.
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VMware Private AI Foundation Licensing: VCF Add-On vs NVIDIA AI Enterprise (Private AI Series, Part 3)
Private AI Foundation is three licenses, not one: VCF per core, the PAIF add-on per core, and NVIDIA AI Enterprise per GPU. Here is how they stack, what bundles with your GPUs, and the verdict on subscription vs perpetual.
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VMware Private AI Foundation Architecture and Components, Layer by Layer (Private AI Series, Part 2)
VMware Private AI Foundation is five layers, not one box. A reference walk through every PAIF component on VCF 9.1: the GPU platform, DSM with pgvector, Private AI Services, and the single-zone limit you have to design around.
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What VMware Private AI Foundation with NVIDIA Actually Is (Private AI Series, Part 1)
Part 1 of the VMware Private AI Series: a clear, opinionated explainer of what PAIF really is, what it is not, the components that do the work, and when it earns its license on VCF 9.1.
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VMware Cloud Foundation 9: Lessons From the Whole Series and My Verdict (VCF 9 Series, Part 37)
The capstone to the 36-part VCF 9 series: the through-line, the five decisions that decide every program, what 9.1 fixed, where the platform still bites, and a straight verdict on who should adopt it now.
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VCF 9 Performance Tuning vs Cost Optimization: Where to Spend Your Effort (VCF 9 Series, Part 35)
Performance tuning and cost optimization in VCF 9 pull in opposite directions. Here is which levers help which goal, where they collide, and the order I run them in on real clusters.
Architect’s Toolkit
PJ’s Tools
VMware Cloud Foundation
- VCF Documentation
- VCF 9 Planning & Preparation Workbook
- VCF Bill of Materials (BoM)
- VMware Compatibility Guide
- VMware Interoperability Matrix
- VMware Configuration Maximums
- VMware Ports & Protocols
- VMware Hands-on Labs
- RVTools Download
Nutanix
AI & Cloud-Native Platform
- NVIDIA Build (Model Catalog)
- NVIDIA AI Enterprise Reference Architecture
- NVIDIA NIM Performance Benchmarking
- NVIDIA NGC Catalog
- NeMo Microservices Helm Chart
- Helm Charts Repository
- Hugging Face Models
Architecture & Design
About the Author
Dr Pranay Jha
Dr. Pranay Jha is a Cloud and AI Consultant with 18+ years of experience in hybrid cloud, virtualization, and enterprise infrastructure transformation. He specializes in VMware technologies, multi-cloud strategy, and Generative AI solutions. He holds a PhD in Computer Applications with research focused on Cloud and AI, has published multiple research papers, and has been a VMware vExpert since 2016 and a VMUG Community Leader.
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