WilliamLam.com

Major Enhancements to VCF 9.1 Upgrade Planner Tool

by // 3 Comments

The VCF Upgrade Planner was launched back in May and the reception and feedback from our users has been incredible. With over 90,000 visits in just a few months, it has quickly become an essential resource for helping customers and partners create a custom-tailored runbook for their specific environment to successfully upgrade to VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.1.

As if the number of visits was not enough validation, I really felt the impact firsthand at VMware Explore 2026, where I met several attendees who all shared a similar sentiment:

I would not have been able to upgrade to VCF 9.1 without the VCF Upgrade Planner.

It has been great to hear how valuable the VCF Upgrade Planner has become for our users. Based on that feedback, we have made over 100 updates, from fixes to enhancements, and today I am excited to share several major updates that further improve the user experience and introduce new capabilities that will help with your VCF 9.1 journey.

[Read more...]

VCF 9.1.1 - New UI Support for Deploying VCF Management Services (VCFMS) & VCF Automation (VCFA) on Non-Management Networks

by // 2 Comments

When using the VCF 9.1.0 Installer to deploy VCF Management Services (VCFMS) and/or VCF Automation (VCFA), users can choose to deploy these components on either the default VM Management Network or an alternative network.


However, deploying VCFMS to a non-management network as part of an upgrade workflow, or VCFA during Day-N operations, requires using the VCF APIs (as explained here and here, respectively), as these workflows are not supported through the UI.

I was pleasantly surprised to recently learn from a colleague that with the latest VCF 9.1.1 release, the UI workflows have been enhanced! Instead of requiring the SDDC Manager or Fleet LCM API, you can now deploy these components to a non-management network directly from the UI.

Here is a screenshot when upgrading your environment to VCF 9.1.1 and when deploying VCFMS, you will now have an option to select a different network.


Here is a screenshot after upgrading you environment to VCF 9.1.1 and you have no deployed VCFA and as part of the Day-N operation, you will now have an option to select a different network.

VCF Agentic AI Hub (Code Assist) MCP Server Fling

by // 12 Comments

Creating scripts to help automate repetitive tasks or generate reports is a common need for every VMware administrator, and with Agentic coding tools like Claude Code, Codex, and Cursor, to name a few, the barrier to entry has been significantly lowered. In fact, when I spoke with attendees at VMware Explore Las Vegas 2026 about their use of coding agents, I saw a dramatic shift compared to the previous year, from maybe 20% to now over 80%!

However, one key challenge you may have experienced when using AI models (LLMs) is that they can still hallucinate and make up a non-existent REST API endpoint or PowerCLI cmdlet. LLMs are designed to always provide an answer, even when that answer may be wrong.

To help address this challenge and provide modern LLMs with the required VCF context for developing scripts and automation, a new Fling has just been released called VCF Agentic AI Hub (VCF-AI), which is delivered as a standalone virtual appliance. VCF-AI includes a VCF Code Assist MCP Server that currently supports code generation for the following VCF SDKs:

  • VCF PowerCLI
    • vCenter Server
    • vSAN
    • VCF Operations
    • SDDC Manager
    • NSX
    • vSphere Supervisor
    • HCX
    • SRM
  • VCF Python SDK
    • vCenter Server
    • vSAN
    • vSAN Data Protection
    • VCF Operations
    • VCF Installer
    • SDDC Manager
    • NSX
    • vSphere Supervisor
    • VCF Operations for Networks
    • Log Management
    • VCF Fleet and SDDC LCM

VCF-AI includes all the OpenAPI specifications and documentation for the two SDKs, which cover a number of VCF components along with skill files that have been created by VCF Engineering to allow users to easily create automation using their favorite Agentic coding agent.

[Read more...]