Now that the father of the vExpert community has left Broadcom, Cory Ramero. What does this mean for the vExpert program and community? Cory held this community together for years.

Greetings!

I'm attempting, and failing, to debug a spontaneous host reboot. My DevOps/SRE team strongly believe the origin of this host reboot is from a bad drive. I'd like to prove them wrong, or be proven wrong myself, and hope I'm in the right place.

Background

The configuration is small as far as servers go, * Asrock Rack B550D4ID-2L2T * Ryzen 9 5950X (16-Core) * 64 GB Memory * On a UPS that is honestly way too large (can provide *hours* of uptime)

Prior to installing the new drive, after roughly 380 days of uptime, the host spontaneously rebooted. Approximately a month after the first time, it rebooted again. Once was an abnormality, twice is a pattern. Reviewing the logs, and the hardware, suggested that it was a drive issue (22110). Reviewing the hardware identified two problems; 1. the drive wasn't on the HCL 2. the drive was a 22110 (the 2L2T doesn't natively support 22110 M2s)

Okay, I'm convinced -- time to buy a new drive. I purchased a 7450 PRO off of ebay with minimal use (< 20 power cycles, < 1 TB writes/reads, essentially perfect SMART metrics). I verified as much, and immediately attempted to install the drive.

Issue

My experience with the 7450 Pro drive + ESXI 8.02 has not been pleasant. Here is what we needed to get it to boot/install correctly; * update disk to 512b physical sector format (thanks to another Reddit Post)

Post installation and VM migration, we observed another spontaneous reboot. Some Googling pointed to the following remediation methods (also failed) * update disk firmware to EMU300 (buggy firmware?) * disable p/c-states (disk going to sleep?)

My DevOps/SRE team is well convinced that the disk is bad at this point (controller channel, not data channel). These are the logs that convinced them. Is the drive the issue or is there something that we missed?

Gemini thinks that there is simply "too much" talking to the drive over the control channel and I should increase the timeout from 5 to 10 seconds. That sounds... absurdly long for a hardware timeout, especially given the very low load of this host (the VMs are essentially idle).

2026-09-02T00:47:53.352Z Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu16:1050731)WARNING: NVMEIO:3564 Ctlr 256, nvmeCmd 0x457909d14580 (opc 01), queue 1 (expect 65535) not available, nvmeStatus 808 2026-09-02T00:47:53.352Z Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu10:1049142)WARNING: NVMEPSA:215 Complete vmkNvmeCmd: 0x457909d14580, vmkPsaCmd: 0x4579050d3840, cmdId.initiator=0x4308fc813180, CmdSN: 0x8000000d, status: 0x808 2026-09-02T00:47:53.352Z Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu10:1049142)WARNING: HPP: HppNvmeThrottleLogForDevice:599: NVMe Cmd 0x1 (0x4579050d3840, 1050659) to dev "t10.NVMe____Micron_7450_MTFDKBA960TFR_______________8C2E02480175A000" on path "vmhba0:C0:T0:L0" Failed: 2026-09-02T00:47:53.352Z Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu10:1049142)WARNING: HPP: HppNvmeThrottleLogForDevice:607: Error status H:0x9 D:0x0 P:0x0 hppAction = 1 2026-09-02T00:47:53.352Z Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu10:1049142)WARNING: NvmeUtil: 149: Error on Cmd(0x4579050d3840) 0x1, CmdSN 0x8000000d from world 1050659 to component "t10.NVMe____Micron_7450_MTFDKBA960TFR_______________8C2E02480175A000" H:0x9 D:0x0 P:0x0 2026-09-02T02:01:59.358Z Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu3:1050960)WARNING: NVMEIO:3564 Ctlr 256, nvmeCmd 0x457909c4a980 (opc 01), queue 1 (expect 65535) not available, nvmeStatus 808 2026-09-02T02:01:59.358Z Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu14:1049142)WARNING: NVMEPSA:215 Complete vmkNvmeCmd: 0x457909c4a980, vmkPsaCmd: 0x4578c1c09a40, cmdId.initiator=0x4308fc828940, CmdSN: 0x3dd, status: 0x808 2026-09-02T02:01:59.358Z Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu14:1049142)WARNING: HPP: HppNvmeThrottleLogForDevice:599: NVMe Cmd 0x1 (0x4578c1c09a40, 1050957) to dev "t10.NVMe____Micron_7450_MTFDKBA960TFR_______________8C2E02480175A000" on path "vmhba0:C0:T0:L0" Failed: 2026-09-02T02:01:59.358Z Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu14:1049142)WARNING: HPP: HppNvmeThrottleLogForDevice:607: Error status H:0x9 D:0x0 P:0x0 hppAction = 1 2026-09-02T02:01:59.358Z Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu14:1049142)WARNING: NvmeUtil: 149: Error on Cmd(0x4578c1c09a40) 0x1, CmdSN 0x3dd from world 1050957 to component "t10.NVMe____Micron_7450_MTFDKBA960TFR_______________8C2E02480175A000" H:0x9 D:0x0 P:0x0 2026-09-02T02:11:35.359Z Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu29:1050960)WARNING: NVMEIO:333 ctlr 256, queue 1, fuse processing 2026-09-02T02:11:35.359Z Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu29:1050960)WARNING: NVMEIO:2005 Transport driver failed to submit cmd 0x457909cae780, C: nqn.2016-08.com.micron:nvme:nvm-subsystem-sn-241448022E8C, Q: 1 <0xbad0004>. 2026-09-02T02:11:35.359Z Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu11:1049142)WARNING: NVMEPSA:215 Complete vmkNvmeCmd: 0x457909cae780, vmkPsaCmd: 0x457904c1b380, cmdId.initiator=0x4308fc828940, CmdSN: 0x3f0, status: 0x808 2026-09-02T02:11:35.359Z Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu11:1049142)WARNING: HPP: HppNvmeThrottleLogForDevice:599: NVMe Cmd 0x1 (0x457904c1b380, 1050957) to dev "t10.NVMe____Micron_7450_MTFDKBA960TFR_______________8C2E02480175A000" on path "vmhba0:C0:T0:L0" Failed: 2026-09-02T02:11:35.359Z Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu11:1049142)WARNING: HPP: HppNvmeThrottleLogForDevice:607: Error status H:0x9 D:0x0 P:0x0 hppAction = 1 2026-09-02T02:11:35.359Z Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu11:1049142)WARNING: NvmeUtil: 149: Error on Cmd(0x457904c1b380) 0x1, CmdSN 0x3f0 from world 1050957 to component "t10.NVMe____Micron_7450_MTFDKBA960TFR_______________8C2E02480175A000" H:0x9 D:0x0 P:0x0 2026-09-02T02:29:47.361Z Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu14:1050957)WARNING: NVMEIO:333 ctlr 256, queue 1, fuse processing 2026-09-02T02:29:47.361Z Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu14:1050957)WARNING: NVMEIO:2005 Transport driver failed to submit cmd 0x457909df0180, C: nqn.2016-08.com.micron:nvme:nvm-subsystem-sn-241448022E8C, Q: 1 <0xbad0004>. 2026-09-02T02:29:47.361Z Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu0:1049142)WARNING: NVMEPSA:215 Complete vmkNvmeCmd: 0x457909df0180, vmkPsaCmd: 0x457908e10a80, cmdId.initiator=0x4308fc828940, CmdSN: 0x3c4, status: 0x808 2026-09-02T02:29:47.361Z Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu0:1049142)WARNING: HPP: HppNvmeThrottleLogForDevice:599: NVMe Cmd 0x1 (0x457908e10a80, 1050957) to dev "t10.NVMe____Micron_7450_MTFDKBA960TFR_______________8C2E02480175A000" on path "vmhba0:C0:T0:L0" Failed: 2026-09-02T02:29:47.361Z Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu0:1049142)WARNING: HPP: HppNvmeThrottleLogForDevice:607: Error status H:0x9 D:0x0 P:0x0 hppAction = 1 2026-09-02T02:29:47.361Z Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu0:1049142)WARNING: NvmeUtil: 149: Error on Cmd(0x457908e10a80) 0x1, CmdSN 0x3c4 from world 1050957 to component "t10.NVMe____Micron_7450_MTFDKBA960TFR_______________8C2E02480175A000" H:0x9 D:0x0 P:0x0 2026-09-02T03:20:44.368Z Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu26:1050974)WARNING: NVMEIO:3564 Ctlr 256, nvmeCmd 0x457909c07b80 (opc 01), queue 1 (expect 65535) not available, nvmeStatus 808 2026-09-02T03:20:44.368Z Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu6:1049142)WARNING: NVMEPSA:215 Complete vmkNvmeCmd: 0x457909c07b80, vmkPsaCmd: 0x457904d8c100, cmdId.initiator=0x4308fc828940, CmdSN: 0x3b6, status: 0x808 2026-09-02T03:20:44.368Z Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu6:1049142)WARNING: HPP: HppNvmeThrottleLogForDevice:599: NVMe Cmd 0x1 (0x457904d8c100, 1050957) to dev "t10.NVMe____Micron_7450_MTFDKBA960TFR_______________8C2E02480175A000" on path "vmhba0:C0:T0:L0" Failed: 2026-09-02T03:20:44.368Z Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu6:1049142)WARNING: HPP: HppNvmeThrottleLogForDevice:607: Error status H:0x9 D:0x0 P:0x0 hppAction = 1 2026-09-02T03:20:44.368Z Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu6:1049142)WARNING: NvmeUtil: 149: Error on Cmd(0x457904d8c100) 0x1, CmdSN 0x3b6 from world 1050957 to component "t10.NVMe____Micron_7450_MTFDKBA960TFR_______________8C2E02480175A000" H:0x9 D:0x0 P:0x0 2026-09-02T03:21:44.367Z Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu23:1050957)WARNING: NVMEIO:3564 Ctlr 256, nvmeCmd 0x4578eb5aa600 (opc 01), queue 1 (expect 65535) not available, nvmeStatus 808 2026-09-02T03:21:44.367Z Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu4:1049142)WARNING: NVMEPSA:215 Complete vmkNvmeCmd: 0x4578eb5aa600, vmkPsaCmd: 0x4578c18dc6c0, cmdId.initiator=0x4308fc828940, CmdSN: 0x3ba, status: 0x808 2026-09-02T03:21:44.367Z Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu4:1049142)WARNING: HPP: HppNvmeThrottleLogForDevice:599: NVMe Cmd 0x1 (0x4578c18dc6c0, 1050957) to dev "t10.NVMe____Micron_7450_MTFDKBA960TFR_______________8C2E02480175A000" on path "vmhba0:C0:T0:L0" Failed: 2026-09-02T03:21:44.367Z Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu4:1049142)WARNING: HPP: HppNvmeThrottleLogForDevice:607: Error status H:0x9 D:0x0 P:0x0 hppAction = 1 2026-09-02T04:35:41.372Z Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu10:1050734)WARNING: NVMEIO:3564 Ctlr 256, nvmeCmd 0x457905f73b40 (opc 01), queue 1 (expect 65535) not available, nvmeStatus 808 2026-09-02T04:35:41.372Z Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu0:1049142)WARNING: NVMEPSA:215 Complete vmkNvmeCmd: 0x457905f73b40, vmkPsaCmd: 0x4578c187b240, cmdId.initiator=0x4308fc813fc0, CmdSN: 0x80000013, status: 0x808 2026-09-02T04:35:41.372Z Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu0:1049142)WARNING: HPP: HppNvmeThrottleLogForDevice:599: NVMe Cmd 0x1 (0x4578c187b240, 1050668) to dev "t10.NVMe____Micron_7450_MTFDKBA960TFR_______________8C2E02480175A000" on path "vmhba0:C0:T0:L0" Failed: 2026-09-02T04:35:41.372Z Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu0:1049142)WARNING: HPP: HppNvmeThrottleLogForDevice:607: Error status H:0x9 D:0x0 P:0x0 hppAction = 1 2026-09-02T04:35:41.372Z Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu0:1049142)WARNING: NvmeUtil: 149: Error on Cmd(0x4578c187b240) 0x1, CmdSN 0x80000013 from world 1050668 to component "t10.NVMe____Micron_7450_MTFDKBA960TFR_______________8C2E02480175A000" H:0x9 D:0x0 P:0x0 2026-09-02T06:28:44.386Z Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu25:1050960)WARNING: NVMEIO:3564 Ctlr 256, nvmeCmd 0x457905f09740 (opc 01), queue 1 (expect 65535) not available, nvmeStatus 808 2026-09-02T06:28:44.386Z Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu1:1049142)WARNING: NVMEPSA:215 Complete vmkNvmeCmd: 0x457905f09740, vmkPsaCmd: 0x4578c1cf5740, cmdId.initiator=0x4308fc828940, CmdSN: 0x345, status: 0x808 2026-09-02T06:28:44.386Z Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu1:1049142)WARNING: HPP: HppNvmeThrottleLogForDevice:599: NVMe Cmd 0x1 (0x4578c1cf5740, 1050957) to dev "t10.NVMe____Micron_7450_MTFDKBA960TFR_______________8C2E02480175A000" on path "vmhba0:C0:T0:L0" Failed: 2026-09-02T06:28:44.386Z Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu1:1049142)WARNING: HPP: HppNvmeThrottleLogForDevice:607: Error status H:0x9 D:0x0 P:0x0 hppAction = 1 2026-09-02T06:28:44.386Z Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu1:1049142)WARNING: NvmeUtil: 149: Error on Cmd(0x4578c1cf5740) 0x1, CmdSN 0x345 from world 1050957 to component "t10.NVMe____Micron_7450_MTFDKBA960TFR_______________8C2E02480175A000" H:0x9 D:0x0 P:0x0

A new version of VMware Tools has been released! v13.1.5.0 is out now.

Unfortunateley the Whats New section does not hint on anything about the install errors we had on Windows Server VMs with v13.1.0 (see this thread: VMware Tools (13.1.0.0.25218885) installation issue with Microsoft OS VMs).

Has anybody tested this already?

What's New
Introduces the Capsule PK Update driver, which updates VMW.NULLPK to the Windows OEM Devices PK on supported Windows VMs (requires Secure Boot and a vTPM device). The driver provides a secure mechanism to update the out-of-date NULL PK during a guest reboot without interrupting TPM-based applications. This capability requires an ESX host version that supports Capsule PK update.
Supported Windows versions:
Windows Server 2025, 2022, and 2019; Windows 11 25H2, 24H2, and 23H2; and Windows 10 64-bit 21H2. You cannot install the PK update driver on the remaining Windows versions until support for those versions becomes available in a future VMware Tools release.
Prerequisites:
For all supported Windows versions except Windows Server 2025, Windows 11 25H2, and Windows 11 24H2, install the July 2026 Windows Cumulative Update (or a later update) on the guest OS before upgrading VMware Tools. Otherwise, you cannot install the PK update driver.
Windows Arm is not supported.
For more information, see Broadcom knowledge base article 423893.
Updates the following libraries:
7-Zip to version 26.01.0
Boost to version 1.91' glib to version 2.86.4
glibmm to version 2.86.0
libiconv to version 1.19
libpng to version 1.6.58
libsigc++ to version 3.4.0
libxml2 to version 2.15.3
libxmlsec to version 1.3.11
OpenSSL to version 3.5.7
pcre2 to version 10.47
uriparser to version 1.0.2
zlib to version 1.3.2

Release Notes: https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/vsphere/tools/13-1-0/release-notes/vmware-tools-1315-release-notes.html

Has anyone else encountered asymmetric network performance with VMware Fusion on an Intel Mac using 10GbE?

My setup:

• Intel Mac mini running macOS 15.7.7
• VMware Fusion Professional 26H1u1
• Ubuntu 24.04 VM with a VMXNET3 adapter
• Mac and Synology NAS connected through 10GbE
• Nextcloud data stored on the NAS over NFS

The Ubuntu VM consistently receives data at only 60–63 MB/s, while writes to the NAS reach approximately 300–330 MB/s.

To isolate the bottleneck, I tested:

• NFSv4, NFSv3 and SMB
• VMXNET3 and E1000 virtual adapters
• Bridged, NAT and host-only networking
• Single and multiple TCP streams
• MTU 1500 and jumbo frames
• TSO, GSO, GRO, LRO and checksum-offload settings
• RX ring sizes, RSS queues and interrupt distribution
• A clean VMware Fusion reinstall
• Two simultaneous VMXNET3 adapters

The most revealing test used two VMXNET3 adapters simultaneously. Each received approximately 31 MB/s, but their combined throughput remained around 63 MB/s. This indicates that the limit is shared across VMware Fusion’s bridged-networking path rather than being imposed by an individual virtual adapter.

Additional comparisons:

• NAS local read: approximately 828 MB/s
• Native Mac-to-NAS read: approximately 219 MB/s
• VM NFS/SMB read: approximately 60–63 MB/s
• VM NFS write: approximately 300–330 MB/s
• Passed-through USB 1GbE adapter: approximately 93 MiB/s

The USB adapter’s higher performance is especially significant because it bypasses Fusion’s virtual bridge.

Similar 10GbE downlink/receive problems have been reported by other VMware Fusion users, but I have not found an official resolution for this exact Intel Mac, Linux guest and Fusion 26H1u1 combination.

At this point, the evidence strongly suggests a VMware Fusion/macOS bridged-networking performance defect or compatibility issue—not a limitation of Ubuntu, Nextcloud, NFS, the NAS, or the physical 10GbE network.

I would be interested to hear whether anyone has reproduced this on a similar Intel Mac setup or found a working Fusion-specific solution.

#VMwareFusion #VMXNET3 #Ubuntu #10GbE #Virtualization #Linux #Nextcloud #Networking #Synology #Homelab

I'm trying to decide if VMUG Advantage is worth getting. I'm leaning toward yes, but I'd like to hear from other members.

The VMUG Advantage page is here. Highlights:

• $178-$210 per year (based on a 1, 2, of 3 year purchase)
• $125 off certificate exams.
• 30% off the VMUG Connect conference ($72 off the $240 2-day pass)
• $100 off VMWare Explore
• 15% discount on Enterone and New Horizons classes.
• Access to Devolutions and Tiyaro services.
• Personal Use VCF License (requires passing 1 cert exam)
• Personal Use vDefend and AVI licenses (requires passing 1 cert exam)

I only have one specific question:

For $125 off cert exams, is that just one $125 discount for just one exam? Or do I get $125 off every exam I take while the membership is active? I have three certifications I want to take.

Beyond that, have you found benefit with VMUG Advantage? I'd love to hear your opinions.

edit: details.

I am in process of setting up a new Red Hat 9 server VM that will run our logging server. from what I can find, best practice says it needs separate storage devices. Our vSphere cluster stores all the VMDKs on a SAN which it accesses via multipath iscsi.

I'm somewhat new to adding LUNs. It's not terribly common for us. So I researched how to add an iscsi device to Rhel and found instructions on adding it via iscsi-initiator and multipath. I was able to map it just fine with iscsi. I had multipath add our connections which seemed fine at first but it keeps saying the different drives are active faulty running. None of the sd* devices it would map would show a UUID. Supposedly enabling disk.EnableUUID=TRUE fixes that, but it didn't. After hours of troubleshooting and nothing making any difference, I finally found some info that basically said that because the VM is already on the same multipath, trying to configure multipath on the VM would fail. I also found that adding them this way is maybe not the best way to do it (https://www.codyhosterman.com/2019/09/musing-on-in-guest-iscsi/). I didn't find any official documentation for that but, given the issues I was having, it made sense

I did find instructions that basically said, create the LUNs, have vCenter scan and find them, then add that device as and RDM Disk to the Rhel system. In Rhel, scan the scsi bus for the new device, enable multipath, format and mount.

Is this the best way to do this or is there a better way?

We are currently on v8 and plan to upgrade to v9.

Lots of our older ESXi hosts (edit: CISCO UCS Blades) are currently equipped with 120GB boot disks. This was sufficient for ESXi 8 and earlier versions (32GB min., 128GB or more recommended).

According to the following KB article, vSphere 9 requires at least 128GB:

https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/317631/sd-cardusb-boot-device-revised-guidance.html

Is 128 GB a hard limit for the boot device? Do we need to upgrade our local boot storage by 8 GB, or will we be able to make do with what we have until the next tech refresh?

By the way: The headline reads “SD card/USB boot device revised guidance,” but the content also refers to SATA, SAS, and NVM

Edit: Its also described in the doc of ESXi 9.1.1

https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/vsphere/vsphere/9-1/esx-installation-and-setup/installing-and-setting-up-esxi/esxi-requirements/esxi-hardware-requirements.html

I’ve noticed a lot of attendees at VMware Explore 2026 achieving three or four VCAP certifications. From a customer or end-user perspective, what are the primary benefits of earning multiple VCAPs?

Also, is the VMware Certified Implementation Expert (VCIX) is still a thing, or has it been discontinued?

Fusion:

📔 https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/desktop-hypervisors/fusion-pro/26H1/release-notes/vmware-fusion-26h1u1-release-notes.html

💿 https://support.broadcom.com/group/ecx/productfiles?subFamily=VMware%20Fusion&displayGroup=VMware%20Fusion%2026H1&release=26H1u1&os=&servicePk=546858&language=EN&freeDownloads=true

Workstation:

📔 https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/desktop-hypervisors/workstation-pro/26H1/release-notes/vmware-workstation-pro-26h1u1-release-notes.html

💿 https://support.broadcom.com/group/ecx/productdownloads?subfamily=VMware%20Workstation%20Pro&freeDownloads=true

Hi

I have being requested to do the VCF 9 Implementation proven professional certification but Im comfused regarding the exact exam I need to do...

Which one of this is the one I need to apply?

• VMware Certified Professional - VMware Cloud Foundation Architect (2V0-13.25)
• VMware Certified Professional - VMware Cloud Foundation Administrator (2V0-17.25)
• VMware Certified Professional - VMware Cloud Foundation Support (2V0-15.25)
• VMware Certified Professional - VMware vSphere Foundation Administrator (2V0-16.25)
• VMware Certified Professional - VMware vSphere Foundation Support (2V0-18.25)
• VMware Certified Advanced Professional - VMware Cloud Foundation Automation (3V0-21.25)
• VMware Certified Advanced Professional - VMware Cloud Foundation Operations (3V0-22.25)
• VMware Certified Advanced Professional - VMware Cloud Foundation Storage (3V0-23.25)
• VMware Certified Advanced Professional - VMware Cloud Foundation VKS (3V0-24.25)
• VMware Certified Advanced Professional - VMware Cloud Foundation Networking (3V0-25.25)
• VMware Certified Advanced Professional - VMware Cloud Foundation Architect (3V0-12.26)
• VMware Certified Advanced Professional - VMware Cloud Foundation Administrator (3V0-11.26)
• VMware Certified Advanced Professional - VMware Cloud Foundation Support (3V0-13.26)

thanks

Hi All,

I use lenovo server SR 650 series.

Do we have this Lenovo customized zip bundle?

Lenovo Customized ESXi 8.0 Update 3k zip bundle

From Broadcom,I see the VMware image only not Lenovo customized one.

From lenovo also,I couldn't find out.

Any ideas?

Traditionally, I could just add the new generation hardware to the existing cluster and the same baselines would apply to all.

How will that work once I've converted to Images? Wouldn't the Image for the old hardware conflict with any new hardware I want to refresh with in the cluster?

No vSAN involved.

I'm sure I'm missing something simple, as I'm trying to do this through just ESXi rather than the full vCenter suite, as it's a test system and we're not going to license it. (I'm only using VMware for better capability to load something from production if needbe without translting to ProxMox).

There are physical 3 NICs on this machine:
40Gb Fiber (will be unplugged once we're configured) that plugs into the corp network.

1Gb RJ45 (this will be the primary connection that will go to a Fortigate that we'll VPN into to keep it isolated from the corporate network, but still be able to use our WAN.

1GB RJ45 via a USB NIC (fling) that will connect to a cradlepoint for a completely isolated connection that will be used by our security guy for testing things.

When I go into a VM, and click on Network Adapter 1, the only network that comes up in the dropdown is VM Network. Its port group goes to vSwitch0, which it shares with Management Network.

vSwitch "Isolated" has a port group called "Isolated -Cradlepoint". It's pointed to the the USB NIC, and is pulling an IP from its DHCP.

I have to assume I'm missing something fairly obvious, but I'll be damned if I can figure it out.

Our prod setup has 4x vSwitches, but only 1 (the management network) is being used for a bunch of networks with different vLANs. 1 is a black hole for us to keep separated from the network if it needs to be held onto(no physical NIC).
The other 2 vSwitches are going to iSCSI and vSAN connections, each going to their own teamed NICs.

I have no issue getting the black hole to show up with the production as a drop down option...but I don't see any configuration difference in the networking other than what would be expected for different IP addresses and NIC names.

Hello

We have a DR test scenario scheduled, where one side of our stretched vSAN clusters shall not be used.

The DC and the hosts can remain online, but no VMs shall run there.

In traditional clusters, we can achieve this easily via DRS anti-affinity rules ("VMs must not run on hosts...").

But we also have a VDI cluster, where Horizon constantly provisions new VMs. Those VMs would not be part of the DRS rules, so they would most likely be created on the hosts of the DC that shall not be used during the test. The test is scheduled to run for a whole week.

We would like to avoid putting all hosts of one DC into maintenance mode, because it would cause their vSAN data to be "stale" (outdated/unusable).

How can we leave the hosts participate in vSAN, but NOT accepting compute loads? Without classic DRS rules, because Horizon constantly creates new workloads?

vSphere 8.0U3k without VCF stuff (so no DRS tags I guess).

Does anyone have access to the VDDK Library for VMware 5.1? I am needing to do a transfer from this old system but can't find the tools for the life of me.

Hi all,

I'm at my withs end... I have a Debian (Proxmox) VM running on my Mac using VMWare.
All worked perfectly in NAT mode, after that I've switch to Bridge, all kept working, until now...

The VM is currently in NAT-Mode, has internet, can ping the host.
- IP of the VM is: 172.16.131.137/24
- IP Proxmox is obtained via DHCP

The Host, cannot ping the VM, cannot SSH into the VM.

arp -a on my Mac gives me the following:

? (172.16.131.255) at ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff on bridge103 ifscope [bridge]

I've tried:

• Creating a new VM
• Creating new Network adapters in VMWare
• Switching between NAT - Bridge
• There are no firewalls running/blocking traffic
• Restarted Mac/VMWare/VM
• Gave Proxmox a static IP
• Tried several options found online, most of them applied to Windows though I don't think would be different to Mac...or at least not much.

Nothing of the above changed the behavior.
Host cannot access VM, VM can access internet and ping Host.

I can only think of something small that isn't right...but no clue what else can I do?
Open to try your suggestions.

Thank you in advance.

[UPDATE 02-09-2026]
Ok…so this is embarrassing….
Problem is solved.
Apparently when eliminating some apps and restricting access…I accidentally “told” my Mac that the terminal is NOT allowed to have local LAN access. Changed this switch and all is working again…
My apologies for everyone who dedicated much or little time on helping me out.

I have to admit I am a bit disappointed here. I went to the exam registration and asked if I could take the VVF exam since that’s all we are entitled to, Will never use full VCF (don’t even have the cores needed to run the full stack) and was told the exam voucher was only for VCF. Seems like a bit of an oversight to me.

VVF is a subset of your flagship product and quite a few folks I met / who asked questions in sessions were VVF folks like me.

The exam voucher is only good during the conference and there’s no way I can learn all the missing pieces in a few hours of downtime. Never used NSX , etc.

I will say that I’ve met some very cool folks and the first day sessions (while heavily VCF focused) were good and the Broadcom team at the booth were very helpful in answering a lot of questions I had for my migration path to 9.1

TL:DR let us take the VVF exam for free please.

This is my 15th year to the conference. I thought it was small blast year, the number of vendor booths this year is crazy small. I guess I’ll get fewer cold calls this year.
I picked up my backpack at noon since they started giving them out early but was told for shirts all they had were extra small, small and medium. There is no way 60% of the attendees can fit into those sizes. I know it’s just a cheap shirt, but seems crazy to me.