Updating VMware Cloud Foundation Operations 9

With the release of version 9.0.1 (this is a minor update, not a major one like Update 1) of VCF components, it is good to cover the update procedure of the key VCF component – VMware Cloud Foundation Operations.

In this short article we will walk though this process.

Continue reading “Updating VMware Cloud Foundation Operations 9”

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What’s new at Nutanix University? Nutanix Certified Professional – Artificial Intelligence (NCP-AI) is Ready to schedule

As I wrote earlier, Nutanix released a new NCP certification focused on the Nutanix AI product called Nutanix Certified Professional–Artificial Intelligence (NCP-AI).

From now on, you can schedule this exam with an appointment date starting Nov. 11, and the great news is that it is free for the first 250 participants. Just use NCPAINEWFREE code during checkout.

And don’t forget to check out the blueprint guide and Nutanix Enterprise AI Administration (NAIA) Online free course. This could really help you prepare.

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What’s new at Nutanix University? Updated certifications: NCP-MCA 6.10 and NCP-EUC 6.10

Nutanix announced an update of two certifications: Nutanix Certified Professional – Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) and Nutanix Certified Professional – End User Computing (NCP-EUC) were updated to version 6.10.

Nutanix Certified Professional – Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) – measures your abilities in Nutanix automation using Self-Service and X-Play.
You can find a blueprint guide here.

Recommended training: Nutanix Multicloud Automation Administration (NMCAA). As usual, the course was updated to match the exam version.

Nutanix Certified Professional – End User Computing (NCP-EUC) – validates your skills in managing end-user computing environments in Nutanix clusters using Citrix or Omnissa.
You can find a blueprint guide here.

Recommended training: Nutanix End User Computing Administration (NEUCA). This free online course was updated to version 6.10 as well.

As usual, the beta exams are completely free for the first 250 participants; simply use the following discounts during checkout: NCPMCA610BETA for the NCP-MCA exam and NCPEUC610BETA for the NCP-EUC exam. You can schedule exams from the Nutanix UniversityThe final date to take the test is Oct 5, 2025.

Notice: After taking a beta exam, you won’t receive your results immediately. Results typically appear 1.5 or 2 months after the beta exam period concludes.

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Veeam Software Appliance v13 Release

Finally! Veeam Backup & Replication v13 and Veeam Software Appliance release. The v13 release begins with the Veeam Software Appliance, followed by the complete Veeam Data Platform (version 13.0.1) in Q4 2025. Please read carefully the KB.

As usual the “what’s new” document is large, and for v13 it’s about 28 pages.

What can you see in the new release?

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First look at the Veeam Software Appliance

For those who do not know, Veeam Software Appliance (VSA) is a new feature of VBR v13, and this product is a pre-built, pre-hardened appliance based on the Veeam-managed Linux-based “Just Enough OS” (JeOS), including all the software you need to run the Veeam Backup & Replication server.

Using software appliance, you do not need to install Windows Server and backup software; just deploy the appliance, and you are ready to go.

In this walkthrough, we will look at how to install VSA and what the Web UI looks like. We will examine VSA features in greater detail in future articles.

Continue reading “First look at the Veeam Software Appliance”

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What’s new at Nutanix University? New certification: Nutanix Certified Professional – Artificial Intelligence (NCP-AI)

Nutanix announced a new certification and training related to the Nutanix Enterprise AI (NAI) platform.

First and foremost, a new training: Nutanix Artificial Intelligence Administration (NAIA) – this course will teach you how to install and operate the Nutanix Enterprise AI.

Currently, this course is available online for free at Nutanix University, and it is the starting point for learning the NAI platform.

Nutanix Certified Professional – Artificial Intelligence (NCP-AI) – is a new professional-level certification that validates your ability to install, configure, optimize, and troubleshoot Nutanix Enterprise AI (NAI) and integrate GenAI applications and agents.

To learn more about this certification, start with the blueprint guide.

As usual, beta exams are available totally free for the first 250 participants; just use the discount during checkout: NJY5A8SV. You can schedule this exam from the Nutanix UniversityThe final date to take the test is Sept 21, 2025.

Notice: After taking a beta exam, you won’t receive your results immediately. Results typically appear 1.5 or 2 months after the beta exam period concludes.

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Preparing for the Nutanix Certified Master – Multicloud Infrastructure 6.10 Exam

Nutanix Certified Master – Multicloud Infrastructure 6.10 is the next certification level after NCP-MCI 6.10.

Since version 6.5, this exam has changed its format, and now it is not a familiar test but laboratory work in a live Nutanix multi-cluster environment with a certain number of scenarios and tasks that need to be completed. The closest analogies are any of the Red Hat exams.

Next, we will look in more detail at what the exam is and the list of topics, as well as the preparation procedure.

Note: This is an updated version of my NCM-MCI 6.5 prep guide.

Continue reading “Preparing for the Nutanix Certified Master – Multicloud Infrastructure 6.10 Exam”

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What’s new at Nutanix University? NCM-MCI 6.10 beta exam is out

Nutanix announced that the Nutanix Certified Master – Multicloud Infrastructure (NCM-MCI) certification is updated to version 6.10, and the exam is now in the beta state.

For those who don’t know, this is a practice exam in a real-lab environment, and this is not a test. I have an article on how to prepare for the NCM-MCI 6.5 exam

In addition to the certification, the course Advanced Administration & Performance Management (AAPM) was updated to version 6.10 too, so make sure to check it out during preparation.

As usual, beta exams are available totally free for the first 150 participants; just use the discount during checkout: NCMMCI610BETAFREE2 . You can schedule this exam from the Nutanix University. The final date to take the test is July 27, 2025.

Notice: After taking a beta exam, you won’t get your results immediately. Results typically appear 1.5 or 2 months after the beta exam period concludes.

Update: The beta exam has reached capacity.

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New Nutanix Releases: AOS 7.3, AHV 10.3, Prism Central pc.7.3

Nutanix released AOS 7.3, which is now the latest available release with the end of support life up to June 2027. In addition to the AOS, new versions of AHV and PC were released.

The AOS 7.3 release includes:
1. Support of 185 TB Capacity in All-Flash Node for Asynchronous Replication with One Hour to Less Than Six Hours RPO;
2. Support of 370 TB Capacity in All-Flash Node for Asynchronous Replication with 24 Hours or More RPO;
3. Support for Accessing a Volume Group using NVMeoF/TCP – check the doc;
4. Node-Level Support for Centralized Password Management for AHV Accounts – This procedure also described in the doc;
5. Enhanced Controller VM (CVM) Security (enabled by default for new clusters deployed with the AOS 7.3 release) – With this enhancement, access to underlying data is further restricted to internal system processes, helping reduce the risk of unauthorized modification;
6. Support for LUKS-Based Encryption of AOS and AHV Configuration Data – support for encrypting AOS and AHV configuration data at rest using LUKS. Read the documentation carefully;
7. Enabled Protection of vTPM-Enabled VMs in PD-Based DR with Asynchronous Replication Schedule;
8. On-Wire Encryption of Replication Traffic.

And more. You can find all release notes following this URL.

Let’s move to AHV 10.3:
1. Single Root Input Output Virtualization (SR-IOV) – Network interface card (NIC) passthrough provides a VM with direct access to a physical NIC.. A long-awaited feature. For more information, check the AHV administration guide. Also make sure to check supported versions;
2. Network Offload – The Network Offload (datapath offload) feature removes the burden by offloading the datapath rules to the NIC hardware. Links above are applicable for Network Offload feature too;
3. Automatic Cluster Selection Feature Enhancements;
4. CCLM and OD-CCLM Support for Guest VMs Connected to an Open Virtualized Network (OVN) LAN;
5. Support for RHEL High-availability Pacemaker Clusters – If you’re working with Red Hat clusters and Pacemaker and use STONITH, this is a must-have feature for you. Check out the documentation.

This release also includes a bunch of resolved issues, so make sure to read the release notes for AHV 10.3.

The last release is Prism Central pc.7.3 (you may notice a change in naming):
1. Enhancements in Network Settings of Recovery Plan;
2. Multicluster Virtual Switches in Prism Central – Starting with pc.7.3, you can create and manage virtual switches in Prism Central that span multiple clusters managed by the Prism Central instance. Check the documentation for more;
3. SR-IOV NIC Profile;
4. Network Offload NIC Profile;
5. Support for Accessing a Volume Group using NVMeoF/TCP;
6. Category Access from Prism Central Admin Center;
7. Prism Central Backup and Restore on Nutanix Objects – You can now back up your Prism Central instances to an S3 compatible object-based storage bucket on Nutanix Objects and recover them;
8. Template Placement Policies;
9. Support for AHV Metro in Multisite Deployments;
10. Intelligent Assist – Starting with pc.7.3, Prism Central displays the Intelligent Assist icon in the bottom-right corner of the Prism Central user interface. The icon provides in-product contextual recommendations, tips, and help resources for blueprints, runbooks, playbooks, and other features of Self-Service and Intelligent Operations;
11. Prism Central Backup and Restore: Configurable Recovery Point Objective (RPO) for Backups to AWS S3 and Nutanix Objects;
12. On-Wire Encryption of Replication Traffic.

This is a really large release, and I didn’t post more than 20 other features, and as always, please refer to the release notes for more information.


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Veeam Backup & Replication 12.3.2 Release

A new version of Veeam Backup & Replication was released with the build number 12.3.2.3617.

First and foremost, this release includes security fixes for VBR server:
CVE-2025-23121CVSS v3.0 Score: 9.9, “A vulnerability allowing remote code execution (RCE) on the Backup Server by an authenticated domain user.”

This vulnerability affects only domain-joined backup servers, so if your VBR server is part of a domain, please consider updating it as soon as possible.

One excellent article to read is Workgroup or Domain” in the Veeam Best Practices guide.

CVE-2025-24286CVSS v3.1 Score: 7.2, “A vulnerability allowing an authenticated user with the Backup Operator role to modify backup jobs, which could execute arbitrary code.”

And one security fix for Veeam Agent:
CVE-2025-24287 CVSS v3.1 Score: 6.1, “A vulnerability allowing local system users to modify directory contents, allowing for arbitrary code execution on the local system with elevated permissions.”

In addition to security fixes, this release resolved several issues and added support for new modern Linux distros, including recently released RHEL 10 and RHEL-like Oracle Linux 10 and Rocky Linux 10, Ubuntu 25.04, and Debian 12.10/11.

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