by Ask anyone. They’ll tell you the same, ‘That Gareth chap loves a VMUG event!’ They’d be correct too.
I’ve been a member of the VMware User Group for some time now, a group of technologists eager to share their thoughts and passion for VMware products. However, the vCommunity (as we put it) can also help as a sounding board for your technical issues, etc., so what better way to meet up with like-minded individuals than at these fantastic VMUG events? A fantastic day catching up with fellow VMUG members as well as a few fellow vExperts and vExpertPROs!
The second London VMUG event of the year took place just one week ago on Thursday, 13th July, sponsored by Xtravirt and Runecast. For the second time, I was lucky enough to have had one of my content submissions accepted. This time, I chose to present on the very relevant topic of how Customers can migrate from the now unsupported VMware NSX Data Center for vSphere (NSX-V) (end-of-life January 2022) to VMware NSX (formerly VMware NSX-T Data Center). I have worked with several Customers since 2021 (and am still working with others) to assist in planning and performing these migrations.
Migrate from NSX-V to NSX-T Using the Migration Coordinator via the In-Place End-to-End User Defined Topology
In my presentation’s scenario, we must perform an in-place migration, as no additional hardware is available to facilitate the deployment of VMware NSX in a greenfield configuration. As you can imagine, an in-place ‘anything’ adds risk, so my session covered one very relevant option, the User Defined end-to-end migration via the VMware NSX Migration Coordinator. This option helps to derisk migration activities, and the session covered a high-level overview of the workflow, what is migrated and how, as well as a low-level detailed walkthrough of the process.
Again, a huge thank you to the London VMUG team for giving me the opportunity to present; thank you to all who attended and for the great Q&A at the end. See you at another VMUG in the future!
Downloads & Further Reading
To learn more about this topic, you can access my session’s slide deck below, as well as my blog post (VMware NSX for vSphere to NSX-T Migration – End-to-End User Defined Topology) from 2022, which has recently been updated in July 2023.
Note – The slide deck has animations that may not display properly in the PDF version. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.
Throughout the day…
Throughout the day, many fantastic sessions were presented, including Chris Bradshaw’s ‘The Document Cartographer’, James Cadwell’s (VMware) ‘Design Thinking’, Paul Donnachie’s (Runecast) ‘Slay The Dragon’, and two great sessions from VMware on MLOps and ‘The Anatomy of a Ransomware Attack’. There was a massive amount of valuable information to absorb and take away from these sessions.
It was also great to see so many of my colleagues from Xtravirt at the event. As one of the main sponsors, Xtravirt was happy to engage with attendees throughout the day, while I took to community presentation duties. As always, it is fantastic to talk to so many smiling faces about how Xtravirt can assist and support customers with their transformation projects, help mitigate risks in cloud migration projects, offer cloud consultancy in a huge number of areas, as well as providing managed services.
Next Up
The next national UK VMUG was announced, this year taking place on Thursday, 23rd November at Birmingham’s International Convention Centre. The local chapter events are, without a doubt, fantastic in their own right, but the UK-wide event should not be missed!
The national event is yet to hit the VMUG website, however, stay tuned to All Events (vmug.com) for registration information.
Finally…Join Us!
Have you considered attending a VMUG event? If you work with VMware products or within the VMware ecosystem, I highly recommend signing up for a free membership. The vCommunity has greatly benefited my career, thanks to both the VMware User Group and the vExpert programmes. These resources have opened doors and allowed me to build many valuable relationships. The VMUG group is welcoming and friendly, so come to an event, chat with your peers, and you’ll be surprised at how quickly you’ll solve old problems and connect with like-minded professionals.
Interested in signing up? Simply visit vmug.com for more information. It’s free!
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