VMware Certifications Updated for VCF 9.0

VMware Certifications validate the critical skills required to integrate and manage the technology that drives our customers desired business outcomes. Certifications are organized into multiple technology areas with levels for those new to the industry as well as experts in the field.

With the release of both VCF and VVF 9.0 VMware have updated and released Version 9.0 Certifications.

The 5 new certifications are:

VMware Certified Professional - VMware Cloud Foundation Administrator (2V0-17.25)

VMware Certified Professional - VMware Cloud Foundation Architect (2V0-13.25)

VMware Certified Professional - VMware Cloud Foundation Support (2V0-15.25)

VMware Certified Professional - VMware vSphere Foundation Support (2V0-18.25)

VMware Certified Professional - VMware vSphere Foundation Administrator (2V0-16.25)

For more information visit VMware Certification site

Or click on each of the certifications for the exam study guides and information about recommended courses, and the recommended study guides.

VMware vSphere 9.0 Perforance Best Practice Guide

 This week I've been presenting a course introducing people to the world of technologoy.

We got to the point of discussing performace issues, the usual phone call that goes along the lines:

"This system is rubbish, it's too slow, it doesn't do x or y very well"

My take on this is as follows, the design of a system is the har job, making sure that we have enough CPU, memory, and that we've picked the right storage and networking systems is just as important and the deployment.

The software and hardware vendors know how their products work and as such, they produce some excellent architecture and design guides.

This leads nicely onto the VMware vSphere ESXi vCenter Performance Best Practices Guide.

It covers

• Hardware for Use with VMware vSphere
• ESXi and VMs
• Gust OSs
• Virtual Infrastructure Management

Just head over to the VMware Documents Page to download and learn more about vSphere best practice fir VCF 9.0

VMware Cloud Foundation Architecture Poster

I'm very much still on my journey to VCF 9.0, and as I talk about VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0.

I find that I lose my voice explaining all the features.

Thankfully those lovely people at VMware have released an architecture poster, and you can access it at:

https://www.vmware.com/docs/vmware-cloud-foundation-architecture-poster

VMware vSphere Version 9 – Configuration Maximums

 

Today we got into a conversation about VMFS datastores and the question was:

In vSphere version 9, what is the version of VMFS and will it allow a VMFS datastore of greater than 64TB?

I had a think, and then thought, “do you know what, I’ve never checked.”

When I did my very first VCP man years ago, I had to memorise the Configuration Maximums guide, fortunately now, that is not a requirement.

But if I’m being asked questions, it’s good to know where to look.

To answer the question:

The version of VMFS is still version 6, and the maximum Datastore is 64TB.

Where did I get this information? I got it from the VMware

https://configmax.broadcom.com/home

However, here’s the disclaimer (thanks VMware)

Guide to Config Max

The View Limits tab provides the information of configuration maximum limits of the selected VMware products for a specific version.

The Compare Limits tab enables you to compare the configuration maximums limits between two versions of the same VMware products.

Disclaimer:

The limits can be affected by other factors, such as hardware dependencies.

For more information about the supported hardware, refer to the corresponding hardware compatibility guide.

It might not be possible to maximize all configuration settings and expect your desired outcome.

To ensure that you do not exceed supported configurations for your environment, consult individual solution limits.

The recommended configuration limits do not represent the theoretical possibilities of your product.

 

New Features in ESXi 9

In this quick post I’ll list the new features available in ESXi v9

CPU

• Support Intel Hardware Performance States (HWP) on Sapphire Rapids and later CPUs:
• Support for 5th generation AMD EPYC processors, formerly codenamed Turin.
• Support for Intel Granite Rapids Series processors, designed for high-performance computing applications.

Accelerators

• Memory Tiering, ESX 9.0 officially launches the Memory Tiering capability, which enables you to add NVMe devices locally to an ESX host as tiered memory.
• Device Selection Policies for Enhanced vGPU Devices, you can use the vSphere Client to configure device selection policies, which gives you greater control over how vGPU devices are allocated in the graphic policies. You can choose a performance-focused policy, which evenly distributes Virtual Functions (VFs) across physical devices, or a consolidation-focused policy, which packs VFs onto fewer devices to provide more flexibility. This feature helps optimize hardware utilization based on your specific workload and operational goals.
• Automated Device Reconfiguration for Enhanced DirectPath I/O with multiple profiles or capabilities, such as GPUs or crypto/compression accelerators. This eliminates the need for system administrators to manually configure such devices to the desired profile or capability. Reconfiguration is performed transparently, when needed, during VM power-on or migration, based on the VM requirements and attributes.
• vSphere vMotion Optimizations for vGPU Workloads. This optimization reduces vGPU VM down time.
• Enhanced DirectPath I/O support for non-checkpointable devices. For VMs with Enhanced DirectPath I/O, you can hot-add memory, vCPUs, virtual devices (NICs), activate VM debugging or statistics capabilities, and use Storage vMotion. Examples of devices that benefit from this feature include Intel's Dynamic Load Balancer (DLB) and the AMD MI200 GPU.
• Virtual IOMMU Support for Enhanced DirectPath I/O, adds support for Virtual Input-Output Memory Management Units (vIOMMU) for VMs using Enhanced DirectPath I/O, increasing the security of guest OS applications.

Guest Platform for Workloads

The following guest operating system releases are new for ESX 9.0:

• Pardus
• Red Hat Core OS
• Miracle Linux
• ProLinux
• Kylin Linux
• FusionOS
• RHEL 10
• Oracle Linux 10
• Debian 13
• FreeBSD 15

Virtual Hardware Version 22:

vCenter 9.0 introduces virtual hardware version 22 to to ensure support for the latest guest operating system versions and increase maximums as follows:

Supported maximums

• 960 logical processors
• 960 cores per socket

Storage

• Boot over NVMe/FC SAN. ESX 9.0 adds support for booting over with the latest implementation of NVMe/Fibre Channel (FC). This feature enables seamless boot operations from remote NVMe storage over FC networks, providing enhanced flexibility and performance for environments that rely on SAN-based storage.
• Boot over NVMe/TCP SAN. ESX 9.0 supports device specification TP-8012 for NVMe/TCP. This new implementation enables support for boot from NVMe/TCP storage, offering more flexibility for booting over a SAN, and providing new opportunities to leverage remote NVMe/TCP storage in your environment, making it easier to deploy and manage your storage solutions.

Networking

• NSX VIBs Included with ESX and Live Patch Support
• Virtual networking ESX kernel modules (VIBs) are included with ESX by default. This reduces the complexity and time required to install and upgrade virtual networking features. With this change, NSX VIBs on ESX Hosts now support ESX Live Patch in addition to the ESX maintenance upgrade. With Live Patch, the upgrades can happen without the need to put hosts into maintenance mode, and with no impact on vMotion or DRS operations.

vExpert 2025 2nd Half Applications are open

 

Applications for the second half of the 2025 vExpert Program are open through July 24th, with award notifications sent on or before August 15th.

What It Takes to Win the vExpert Award

The vExpert award recognizes impactful community contributions, not job roles or certifications.

A benefit to applying in the second half is that we consider contributions from both 2024 and 2025, this is the only time we include current year contributions. 

Work related activities (as part of your paid job) do not count.

You can be recognized for any of the following:

• Enterprise / Internal Influencers
• Driving VMware product adoption through internal sessions, mentoring, and evangelism within your organization.
• Bloggers
• Publishing regular technical content, scripts, deep dive product overviews, and community-focused articles.
• Code Sharing
• Contributing open-source projects, scripts, GitHub repos, automation tools, or technical blog posts.
• VMUG Leaders
• Leading VMware User Group chapters and helping foster local technical communities.
• Event Speakers
• Presenting on VMware topics at conferences, webinars, company meetings, or VMUG events.
• Podcasters
• Creating or participating in podcasts covering VMware or related technologies.
• Forum Contributors
• Actively helping others on platforms like Broadcom Communities, Reddit, or other technical discussion forums.
• Authors
• Writing or contributing to books on VMware technologies.
• VCDX Certification Holders
• Holding VMware’s highest level of certification demonstrates deep investment and expertise.

How to Apply for the vExpert Award

These are examples of how you can earn the award.

If you don’t want to create videos, start a blog, or participate in a podcast, that’s perfectly fine but choose the format that fits you best. 

By browsing the vExpert Directory, you can see what others have done to win the award and find inspiration for your own path.

Applying is straightforward, but being intentional will strengthen your chances.

Connect with a vExpert PRO

If this is your first time applying, consider working with a vExpert PRO. They’re experienced vExperts who can guide you through the process and help you highlight your contributions to ensure you are awarded with the vExpert Award.

Engage with the Community

Amplify vExpert-related posts, share VMware announcements, create blog content, share VMware related videos, or start a podcast. A great way to learn is by reviewing the vExpert Directory to see how others have contributed, each profile lists their social links and badges for the work they have completed. Browse all badges by reviewing at this profile, then clicking on one of the badges.

Tell Your Story

Write about your journey, community impact, and VMware-related projects. A personal touch makes your application stand out and reflects your commitment.

Apply Now

Submit your application at: https://vexpert.vmware.com/apply

Finally hope if you do decide to apply that you're successful in obtaining the vExpert award

 

VMware vSphere Foundation and VMware Cloud Foundation version 9, A comparision

 

VMware vSphere Foundation and VMware Cloud Foundation version 9

Today we were talking about licensing and feature differences between VMware vSphere Foundation and VMware Cloud Foundation

VMware Cloud Foundation  

A unified private cloud platform that combines the scale and agility of public cloud with security and performance of on-premises infrastructure, delivering increased productivity and lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).

·       VMware Cloud Foundation is a full-stack Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) platform that delivers software-defined compute, storage, networking, security, and management.

·       Integrated automation enables a self-service platform to rapidly deploy VMs/containers for developer agility.

·       Hardened platform offering built-in resilience, scaling, and clustering for non-stop operations.

·       Provides cloud agility to scale infrastructure without scaling staff, delivering cloud consumption on-premises.

·       Provides automation and orchestration to simplify Day 0, Day 1, and Day 2 tasks.

·       Available as a single SKU to simplify full stack deployment

VMware vSphere Foundation

An enterprise-grade workload platform for modern infrastructure delivering virtualized benefits, simplified management, cost efficiency, scalability and serves as the core foundation for VMware Cloud Foundation.

·       Unified workload platform for running VMs and containers side by side with a native Kubernetes runtime.

·       Intelligent operations management delivers enhanced visibility and infrastructure optimization. 

·       Hyperconverged infrastructure integrates compute and storage virtualization for efficient resource management.

·       Simplified deployment and scalability with a single SKU, enabling faster application delivery and future ready infrastructure

However, there is much more to these products, the one you select will be based on your needs, and thankfully VMware have produced a guide that not only talks about feature comparisons, but also talks about the available upgrade paths from previous products to VCF 9.0

To obtain this guide visit

vmware-cloud-foundation-9-0-feature-comparison-and-upgrade-paths