Tag: VCF
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Deploying and Enabling VCF Automation via Fleet Management (VCF Automation 9 Series, Part 4)
VCF Automation is not installed, it is enabled as a fleet component. The prerequisites, the appliance inputs that trip people up, and what to do the moment it comes up.
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VM Apps vs All Apps Organizations in VCF Automation: Which Model to Choose (VCF Automation 9 Series, Part 3)
VM Apps and All Apps are not two skins on one engine, they are two architectures. The differences, a decision tree, and a clear verdict on which organization type to choose.
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VCF Automation 9 Architecture: Assembler, Service Broker, Orchestrator and How a Request Becomes a Deployment (VCF Automation 9 Series, Part 2)
The architecture of VCF Automation 9: the three services, the deployment engine between them, how a catalog request turns into a running workload, and where extensibility hooks in.
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What VCF Automation Is: The Product Formerly Known as vRealize Automation, in VCF 9 (VCF Automation 9 Series, Part 1)
VCF Automation is vRealize Automation’s lineage on VCF’s architecture. What it is, the three services you work in, the provider/tenant/project model, and the VM Apps vs All Apps fork.
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VCF 9 API Authentication: Tokens, Refresh, Service Accounts and RBAC (Automating VCF Series, Part 3)
Authentication on VCF 9 is a subsystem, not a one-line step. Token pairs, the 60-minute expiry, refresh handling, service accounts and the ADMIN/OPERATOR/VIEWER roles.
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The VCF 9 Automation Toolchain: REST API, SDK, PowerCLI, Terraform and Ansible (Automating VCF Series, Part 2)
VCF 9 has one blessed contract and five good ways to call it. Here is what PowerCLI, Terraform, Ansible, the Unified SDK and curl are each actually for, and how to pick.
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Why Automate VCF 9: The API-First Shift and What Actually Changed (Automating VCF Series, Part 1)
VCF 9 collapsed SDDC Manager, vCenter, NSX and vSAN behind one Unified REST API. Here is what changed, the five tools that share it, and where I would start automating.
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NSX in VCF 9: How SDDC Manager and Fleet Management Own the NSX Lifecycle (NSX Series, Part 25)
In VCF 9, NSX is a managed component, not a standalone product you babysit. SDDC Manager deploys and lifecycles it, VCF Operations and Fleet Management run it across instances, and you deploy greenfield or import brownfield NSX as a Workload Domain. Here is how the ownership actually splits.
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NSX 9 Licensing and Editions: VCF vs Standalone and the vDefend Trap (NSX Series, Part 3)
How NSX 9 is licensed in VCF 9: what the base bundle includes, why security needs a vDefend add-on at full core count, and when standalone NSX makes sense.
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VCF 9 Planning and Prerequisites: Sizing, Networking and the Readiness Checklist (VCF 9 Series, Part 4)
Sizing, VLANs, MTU, DNS and the readiness checklist for a VCF 9 deployment. The prerequisites that decide whether your bring-up sails through validation or stalls hours in.
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VCF 9 Licensing Explained: Core Counting, the vSAN TiB Entitlement and 5 Costly Mistakes (VCF 9 Series, Part 3)
VCF 9 licensing looks simple but bites at design time: the 16-core-per-CPU floor, the 1 TiB-per-core vSAN entitlement, and the move of production load balancing to Avi. Five mistakes, with the numbers behind each.
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VMware Cloud Foundation 9 Architecture: Fleet, Instances and Domains Explained (VCF 9 Series, Part 2)
The VCF 9 hierarchy is fleet, instance, domain, cluster. Here is what each layer really means, the host-count minimums, and why you should schedule change windows by domain and fleet-services, not by vCenter.
Architect’s Toolkit
PJ’s Tools
- Infra 360 Hub – All Series
- VCF 9 Interactive Walkthroughs
- VCF Design Cheatsheet
- VCF Upgrade Planner
- VCF 9 Series Hub
- VCF Deployment Hub
- AI Stack Hub
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- DrJhaGPT – Ask Pranay
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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