Whether you have already switched to VMware vSphere 7 or not, new knowledge never hurt anybody. There are various novelties that have been introduced in this version. For example, this article will cover tips related to increasing Shell session timeout, using Datacenter CLI and file-level backup for vCSA, and resetting vCSA root password.

Typically, Content Libraries are used for keeping VM templates, vApp templates, ISO files, and all that jazz you typically share within your network. With such capability, that thing makes vSphere admins’ life easier allowing them to ensure consistency within the infrastructure under workloads. So, if you have never used it before, it may be high time to learn more about Content Libraries. Learn the basics of working with Content Libraries in VMware vSphere in the full article by Paolo Valsecchi.

VMware vSphere 6.5 is the latest version of the enterprise server virtual platform from VMware, but the new beta it’s already there for testers. Actually the next version it’s (in the beta). If you are building a new infrastructure from scratch the latest stable version is probably the best choices (for most cases); but what about if you have an old environment and you plan to upgrade it?

VMware Photon OS has been the latest OS used for vCenter Server Appliance 6.5. This is the latest move from SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) as VMware wants to own the Operating system (OS) and manage its development cycles and patches releases. Things that aren’t possible on Windows OS or SLES. That’s why VMware used Photon Linux and continues to develop Photon OS which is optimized for VMware platforms.

Very often, VMware vSphere administrators have to find the reasons of performance issues by analyzing the historical data of various metrics on the VMware vCenter Server. However, sometimes the default set of metrics is not enough if you view performance data for the previous night or the end of the past week – in this case, you need to change the level of collected metrics and, possibly, the frequency of their collection and retention. In the VMware vCenter Server settings, you can set the data collection levels, different collection intervals and the time period that the data will be stored on the Server. In addition, you can set an approximate size of the virtual infrastructure in the host servers and virtual machines, which will allow to roughly estimate the size of the vCenter database. Let’s take a closer look at these settings.