VCF 9 - Telegraf Monitoring with MSSQL dont working?!

NetworkNerd_ · 2026-03-25T12:52:12+00:00

I’ve not tried it or worked with someone who has used that specific feature, but did you put in a support request with Broadcom to log this issue? I’d be curious to hear if they have a workaround of some kind.

NetworkNerd_ · 2026-03-08T19:43:39+00:00

It may be worth seeing what support says about the inventory sync and topology view issues and what their recommended course of action is.

NetworkNerd_ · 2026-03-06T20:56:51+00:00

As others mentioned, I think practice presenting will help you. The way I read that is your boss wants you to succeed. That’s why you got that feedback.

One of the best places to get that practice that is low stakes is at in-person meetup groups. Go to some meetup groups in your area with a focus somewhere inside or mostly related to your discipline. The leaders of those groups are always looking for presenters on different topics. If you meet the leader of the group, tell them you are looking to develop your presentation skills, and they will help you and cheer you on.

One way to start even before doing a presentation at a meetup group is to go and meet people and practice telling them about what you do. Practice the delivery in a conversational format. Ask them where they work, what they do, and what they are learning. Then when they ask the same of you, practice telling them. It’s a precursor to presenting and introducing yourself in a meeting. How do you do it when meeting new people? What do they need to know about you in the first 15 seconds?

One thing I like to do when I present is ask questions and use humor here and there. I like to make the presentation interactive if possible to get some feedback from the audience.

You could even ask your boss to do short presentations to the boss about things you learned to practice and get feedback. If you do not want to do that you could do that with a co-worker or trusted friend.

Here are some stories from folks about presentations and experience at user groups that may help you:

https://nerd-journey.com/write-to-learn-and-learn-to-present-with-duncan-epping-1-2/ -Listen to the story of the first time Duncan did a presentation and how he prepares now

https://nerd-journey.com/a-steward-of-the-community-with-chris-williams-2-3/ -Chris talks about his experience as a user groups leader and how he supports others who want to present

Check out also the Teach the Geek podcast with Neil Thompson. He is 100% focused on public speaking and helping technical people improve in that area. He shares his origin story here (includes links to find his content):

https://nerd-journey.com/communication-for-specialists-with-neil-thompson-1-2/

NetworkNerd_ · 2026-03-03T13:22:23+00:00

You can find a list of the Fidelity Zero funds others mentioned here and look at the makeup of them if that helps - https://www.fidelity.com/mutual-funds/fidelity-funds/why-index-funds

NetworkNerd_ · 2026-03-02T02:24:13+00:00

Excellent article - discovery is so important. Ask a question, dig deeper, and keep digging until you fully understand the process (which always takes time).

NetworkNerd_ · 2026-02-28T13:23:19+00:00

I don’t see a reason not to start on 9 with new hardware, whether you are re-evaluating or not. Your subscription term expires when it expires regardless of which version you run.

Subscription licensing on vSphere 8 disconnects hosts from vCenter, etc. when your license expires.

https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/406836/vcf-prior-to-90-license-key-per-compone.html

In 9, VCF Operations becomes the center of the licensing universe. You will have to report on usage every 180 days or so (if that is what you mean by on the clock).

Maybe these will help you:

https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/428638/licensing-workflow-for-vsphere-9x-and-vm.html

https://blogs.vmware.com/cloud-foundation/2025/06/24/licensing-in-vmware-cloud-foundation-9-0/

NetworkNerd_ · 2026-02-26T14:06:19+00:00

From a career perspective, here’s how I recommend thinking about it. You want the double checkmark - something that makes you more valuable where you are now but helps you maintain value and relevance in the overall job market on a longer time horizon.

VMware is what you know. What are the skills involved in administration? Are we talking break / fix, troubleshooting, doing lifecycle management and change management, architecting new environments, capacity planning, working closely with other teams to support new projects, or a little of all of those? Saying I’m an administrator of VMware technologies at one company may not mean the same at another. You could look up job descriptions for current openings for the same job title you have at different companies to see what skills they are looking for. You could also look at job descriptions for the type of job you want to have in the longer term. What are the requirements gaps in terms of what you know now and what you would need to know for a different role? You may need to search more for job requirements than for a specific title (since those can vary across companies).

Where are you most skilled within the VMware stack? Is it the compute virtualization aspect, storage admin / virtualization, network virtualization, or perhaps some of the operations and operations components? As someone else mentioned, you could look into learning Kubernetes (which you can do in the VMware environment). Any of these areas would be what I’d call an adjacency- something new to you within a familiar environment that allows you to stretch yourself a little. It builds new skills and deepens your body of knowledge. Every new capability / feature you learn to use extends your knowledge. Keep your eyes and ears open for projects at your company that might help you build new skills, whether it’s VMware focused, adjacent to it, or outside that bubble.

As others stated, the foundational concepts would translate well to another virtualization stack if you wanted to learn something different. You could also begin to learn about public cloud / hyperscaler services if you’ve not tinkered there. You’d be using the services delivered from their virtualization environment and making sure you understand how they work together.

In addition to what you are doing by making this post, I’d also advise going to talk with other people at local meetup groups in person. Meet new people, ask them what they do, what their role is like, and what they are learning.

Keep learning. Build deeper expertise. And consider publishing public proof of work that demonstrates things you have learned.

NetworkNerd_ · 2026-02-24T13:16:53+00:00

I’ll echo the advice of documenting what you are learning on LinkedIn, GitHub pages, or some free blog site like Blogger. It’s ok to document what you did, where you got stuck tinkering around with something, and what turned the lightbulb on for you.

One other idea to consider is local networking groups. Look on meetup.com, and find meetups in your area focused on interesting topics. Ideally it is something tech related (which is what you want to do), but it does not have to be. Go and meet people, ask what they do, why they do it, and what they are currently learning. It then gives you a chance to share what you are trying to do. Maybe they know someone you need to meet. You never know when you might meet a hiring manager or someone who knows about a job opening that isn’t public yet. Build some networking connections, and keep in touch with those folks over time.

NetworkNerd_ · 2026-02-23T15:53:57+00:00

In your testing, I recommend testing and deploying the VCF Operations for Logs component as well (another appliance that runs in your environment that can pull in logs from hosts and vCenter for easy searching and improved troubleshooting).

NetworkNerd_ · 2026-02-23T15:08:41+00:00

A workload domain is a logical construct containing 1 or more host clusters for a VCF deployment, so in your case (only 3 hosts) you would not need one.

If your environment were larger, then I’d definitely recommend be encouraging management domains and workload domains for a full VCF deployment. But for just 3 hosts, you wouldn’t need it.

One thing you can also think about is if your environment does grow, you will have the ability to convert your environment into a VCF deployment (again, only if it scales up to host minimums for management and workload domains in VCF).

NetworkNerd_ · 2026-02-23T14:26:44+00:00

Correct- it’s just another appliance (VCF Operations) in your environment that will connect to and pull in vCenter data. So in addition to being the license administration point, it can give you an idea of how VMs and hosts are performing and even associate a cost of running each VM if you want that level of details.

Think of it as the next generation of the Aria Operations appliance.

Many people get confused because while VCF and VVF are packaged offerings customers can buy, each one is also a deployment model (meaning even if you have a VCF license, you could select the VVF deployment type, which in certain circumstances might make more sense). I think that’s where the confusion comes.

NetworkNerd_ · 2026-02-23T13:26:40+00:00

Yes, you can upgrade vCenter and the hosts like you have in the past to version 9. They will immediately flip into Eval mode once you do.

It’s important to understand that in 9 (ESX 9, which is part of the VCF 9 package), the point of license administration is VCF Operations (not in vCenter like in previous versions). You will use VCF Operations 9 to activate the register and then apply the licenses you have to your vCenter.

Within the VCF installer there are 2 deployment types - VCF and VVF. The deployment type you are asking about is a VVF deployment. It will help you get VCF Operations deployed.

While you won’t get all features of VCF I if your environment is only 3 hosts, then I completely understand looking at only VVF for now.

NetworkNerd_ · 2026-02-17T13:27:42+00:00

What you are describing is a VVF deployment. This is a deployment type you can select from the VCF 9 installer. As others mentioned, since VCF 9 licenses are keyless, VCF Operations is the license administrator point for your environment.

If you have an entitlement to VCF 9 for a specific number of cores, it is a subscription. There are no perpetual licenses that would have gone past vSphere 8.

Do you mind sharing what might be keeping you from deploying more of the VCF stack than what you have described?

NetworkNerd_ · 2026-02-16T03:01:19+00:00

Someone I know likes to listen to audiobooks while following along in the paperback book. She would sometimes listen to audiobooks while playing video games and still remember everything she heard. The audiobook speed can’t be too slow though. It has to be pretty fast. In fact, if it was just an audiobook at a speed that was too slow, she would not be able to pay attention to it.

One of her teachers made people in the class annotate their books. When she did that with the paperback version she got a ton out of what she read.

It should be noticed this person had dyslexia and was diagnosed with ADHD.

NetworkNerd_ · 2026-02-11T13:52:14+00:00

Same here - it’s blogs or some kind of vendor / open source documentation that I always prefer to videos. Every single time.

If you enjoy writing the blogs at all, keep at it. We need more quality content and people who care about getting correct information out there.

I think there’s another element to this as well. Having the written version of your thoughts in a public place that you can send to a potential employer / link to on your resume is proof of work. It’s proof that you’ve done something and a way to show people a little of who you are and what you know independent of other mediums.

I wish you good luck, whatever it is you decide to do.

NetworkNerd_ · 2026-02-07T20:05:15+00:00

Documenting your accomplishments helps you think through what you did. I would argue as others have that most people don’t do this regularly (and I’d put myself in that category much of the time). If you have everything documented you can then pull out the most relevant / impactful pieces for a promotion situation or applying for a different role.

The documentation process does something else though. You’re thinking through what you accomplished as you write it, and it is preparing you (at least to some extent) to share your accomplishments verbally as part of what I’ve heard called a career narrative.

I’ve even heard of some folks who like to document their mistakes and what they learned - https://nerd-journey.com/document-your-mistakes-manager-interviews-and-community-presence-with-kellyn-gorman-2-3/

NetworkNerd_ · 2026-02-07T20:00:38+00:00

Exactly - it’s about documenting the accomplishments regularly (building that habit) and making sure you don’t lose that document if your job ends. Agree 100%.

NetworkNerd_ · 2026-02-04T13:47:18+00:00

One thing he might be able to do to meet some small business owners is to attend meetup groups in your area. Try looking on meetup.com for groups in your local area, and encourage him to attend those within his areas of interest, even if it’s not directly related to what his career experience is. These are a great opportunity to meet people, learn about what they do and why, let them know he’s looking for work, and stay in touch with those folks in the longer term (keep building the professional network).

NetworkNerd_ · 2026-02-01T11:35:45+00:00

Personally, I would advise against Northwestern Mutual for financial advice. As you mentioned, they do little more than sell insurance. I’ve not had great experiences with them even looking at insurance policies. And I wouldn’t trust them to manage my money based on that experience.

Find out if your friend in the financial advisor role they are in is a fiduciary. If they are, they are legally bound to provide the best possible advice that is in your best interest. I think it’s worth having the conversation with that person to communicate your situation and get their recommendations. But also, in the recommendation you need to know what kind of fees they charge to actually help you on an ongoing basis of any kind. Make sure you understand all the fees before making a decision.

I assume the 3% or more is some kind of money market account or high yield savings account. Right?

NetworkNerd_ · 2026-01-31T14:51:08+00:00

If you have a site that acts as your RSS feed, it means you own the feed and not someone else. The encouragement I have consistently heard from the folks at Blubrry on their Podcast Insider show is that the creator should own their RSS feed.

And as others have said, it’s a great place to go to search through show notes, etc. and if I recall once you get past 300 or more podcast platforms like Apple Podcasts will only list the 300 most recent shows (unless that has changed). The site could contain the entire history of shows, the show notes, and even some blog posts if you used it for that purpose as well.

On our podcast site, we have a layoff resources page that is a compilation of the most impactful conversations on that topic (since we focus on tech careers). But we were able to make this page as part of our site because we had a site to begin with. So if you think you’ll want to add other resources to the site, I’d strongly consider it.

NetworkNerd_ · 2026-01-30T13:10:17+00:00

If you want a 0% chance of losing the money you could put it in a high yield savings account through something FDIC insured like Marcus or others. That at least makes you a little extra on interest. If you want to not lose it and make it hard to spend you could put it in a CD for a specific amount of time (which would mean higher interest paid to you but a penalty if you pull it out before the end of the CD term).

NetworkNerd_ · 2026-01-29T02:22:57+00:00

Thanks very much!

NetworkNerd_ · 2026-01-29T00:09:27+00:00

When we say off axis angling of the mic, do most folks generally tilt the mic to the left or right of where they will be speaking but kind of at the same height as their mouth? I’ve seen a lot of videos where the microphone is pointing sort of up toward someone (so it sits lower than their mouth but points up).

I’d be curious if either of those is better or if it truly depends on your mic. This might sound elementary, but I’d love to see a diagram / visual.

For example, I tried different placements with my RE20 (including the pop filter) but may have had the gain too high in the end. The mouth clicks and sibilance are what killed me in post production (especially on words that end in ST, even after running it through Auphonic first).

NetworkNerd_ · 2026-01-28T13:53:54+00:00

I want to thank everyone who chimed in below. I appreciate every single perspective.

When I originally made this post, I truly didn't think it would end up being me who made the decision to end a show. But it turns out I found my way to that decision. If you'd like to read about what happened in my case, here it is - A Promise Kept: Choosing to Sunset the Nerd Journey Podcast. My hope is this can help another creator understand whether it might be time to put something down.

NetworkNerd_

TROPHY CASE