This year has been tough, but luckily time is flying by. VMware’s flagship event, VMworld, is just a few weeks away! Due to everything, VMworld is virtual this year, and most of the content is free to check out. There is a Premier Pass, which will get you 1 on 1 sessions, workshops, and the certification discount you typically get with a VMworld pass.

There are some 774 (and growing) sessions that will be available during this event on the free pass! Have you registered yet?

Picking Sessions

Now that the schedule builder is live, you can start filling up your schedule with the sessions you want to see. Make sure you prioritize live sessions in the week of VMworld itself – those will run with live Q&A, where the on-demand sessions will not. Being able to ask questions to the presenters is always a perk.

My Picks

Here is the list of sessions that I’ve scheduled, based on the awesomeness of the presenters. These exclude the general and solution keynote sessions (which you should see without a doubt), and keep in mind I’m a networking guy, so these are focused around network and security. 🙂

NSX-T Operations and Troubleshooting [VCNC1380]
Raymond is one of the most experienced NSX architects out there, and he translates his experiences very well into talks. Alongside Jing, this should be a very education talk that will give you tools, tips, and tricks to work with.

NSX Federation Overview [VCNC1178]
Federation is a fairly new concept and NSX-T is betting big on it. They learned what not to do from NSX-v Cross-vCenter and made it extremely scalable. Dimitri and Jerome always do a good job of explaining things in simple terms. 

Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Networking Concepts [KUB2334]
If you think you know networking in the traditional form, be prepared to be confused as heck by the networking Kubernetes implements. I’m still wrapping my head around it, and sometimes it looks like a bunch of scotch and tape to get networking to the container level. I’m expecting to learn the why behind some of this networking magic here.

Demystifying the NSX-T Data Center Control Plane [VCNC1164]
This is going to be a sweet deep dive into VTEP, MAC, ARP tables, central and local control planes, CLI troubleshooting on the NSX-T Manager, everything you need to understand how NSX-T learns things and how to troubleshoot the low-level details of the overlay network.

NSX-T Automation Using vRealize Automation [HCMB1262]
NSX-T Deep dive: APIs Built for Automation [VCNC1417]
NSX-T is designed to be deployed in an automated fashion, and these two sessions will prime you for deploying it in an enterprise environment by using vRA or anywhere else using the raw APIs.

Advancing Networking and Security Technologies in Times of Volatility [VCNC1784]
Kickass customer story, simple as that. This account of how Optum embraced virtual networking & security to empower themselves throughout the pandemic is awesome. 

My Sessions

As you might know, I’m pretty deep into vRealize Network Insight. I’ve got 5 sessions where I either just come say hello or talk way too long about vRNI. Come find me and some awesome vRNI content at any of these sessions:

Automating vRealize Network Insight [VCNC1710]
Everything about vRNI’s APIs, SDKs, and tons of example scripts. Otherwise known as my yearly geek out session. 

Build Application Migration Waves for HCX with vRealize Network Insight [HCP1685]
Application migration is not easy, but with vRNI for planning and HCX for the migration, it’s substantially less hard. This session takes customer experiences and puts those into a template you can use to migrate. It also has an end-to-end demo of how that process looks.

New Innovations and Capabilities in Network Monitoring and Troubleshooting [HCMB1916]
Talking about <redacted> is going to be so much fun, I can’t wait! vRNI 6.0 is going to be pretty big and this session is all about that. 

Operationalizing Your Cloud: Part 2 – Leveraging Hybrid Cloud with VMware [HCMB1494]
Role-playing our way through an impromptu scenario where we have to migrate all workloads and fast. A cohesive story between vRNI, vROps, VMC, and vRA.

App-Aware Operations [HCMB1725]
Applications are what’s important, and you need everything you can get to troubleshoot apps. This is session talks and shows (mostly shows) the ways vROps and vRNI can get you closer to the application owners and troubleshoot and monitor more effectively.

Professional Development Track

There are 6 main tracks, but there are also sub-tracks. One of them caught my eyes: Professional Development. If you want to learn a new skill and want to get started with something like coding Raspberry Pis, the VMUG, or building the right skills for digital transformation; there are some cool sessions there. Be sure to check those out.

Share the wealth!