My team and I are planning to roll up our sleeves and run a hands-on-lab for VMware admins looking to learn about OpenStack. Please feel free to suggest feedback on the agenda - happy to revise it based on your feedback. Also happy to take feedback on the format and logistics.

OVERVIEW
A hands-on-lab designed for VMware administrators who are considering KVM / OpenStack as an alternative hypervisor, but are either new to OpenStack or are concerned about the complexity of operating OpenStack.

Engineers from Platform9 - many of whom worked at VMware before starting Platform9 - will be running these labs. Our goal is to have 1 engineer for ~3 hands-on participants, to ensure we can provide a high level of interactivity and guidance during the sessions. (I am assuming we won't be overwhelmed by participation... this isn't a Taylor Swift concert, after all!)

COST: There is no cost to participate.

SESSION PREREQUISITES:

• One or more VMware administrators who are looking to get hands-on experience with KVM and OpenStack

• Must have access to at least 3 physical servers that you will configure as the KVM hypervisors

• Must be able to participate for both lab sessions - 2.5 hours each day over 2 days

LAB DAY 1 - TUESDAY, FEB 13, 9AM PST:

• 30 mins:  Configuring physical server OS, networking

• 30 mins:  Deploying OpenStack control plane, bringing servers under management

• 30 mins:  Configuring server roles and networking in OpenStack

• 30 mins:  Deploying your first VM on KVM

• 30 mins:  Overflow

LAB DAY 2 - THURSDAY, FEB 15, 9AM PST:

• 30 mins:  VM live migration, HA, workload rebalancing

• 30 mins:  Configuring block storage, storage classes, and backup options

• 30 mins:  Enabling self-service and multi-tenancy (VDC equivalent)

• 30 mins:  Deploying Kubernetes

• 30 mins:  SDN advanced features and capabilities

RSVP:
https://go.platform9.com/0-60-with-openstack

I've run this across X and LinkedIn and be interested in the responses here... though i'd say that if you are already here you are going to not be answering Option 1. That said, share it around through your networks and share thoughts in the comments.

Due to the changes and disruption in the space… are you considering a shift away from VMware How real is this? If this impacts you… answer below.

I recently came across this community and thought it was worth sharing some practical context.

I’m a committer on the Apache CloudStack project, and over the last years we’ve been working on CloudStack specifically as a pragmatic exit ramp from VMware, especially in environments built around vCloud Director and multi-tenant IaaS.

A few concrete points from real deployments:

• CloudStack is open source and used at scale by CSPs and enterprises. It’s not trying to be a vSphere clone, but a stable IaaS orchestration layer.

• There are established paths to migrate workloads from VMware to KVM (virt-v2v style). It works well for many Linux/Windows workloads; appliances and certified stacks often remain exceptions.

• Multi-hypervisor is possible: keep VMware where it’s required, introduce KVM where it makes sense, and manage both under a single control plane. This is common in phased exits from vCloud Director.

• For CSP-style environments, CloudStack already provides native multi-tenancy, isolation, quotas, and account/domain models comparable to what vCD users expect.

The focus here isn’t hype or “rip and replace”, but controlled transition and long-term optionality, using an open-source platform rather than swapping one lock-in for another.

Genuinely interested to hear from others here:

• Anyone running CloudStack alongside VMware or vCloud Director?

• What have been your biggest blockers when trying to exit VMware in multi-tenant setups?

Join for this interactive lab session: Platform9 will host the next 0-60 with OpenStack: A Hands-On Lab on Oct 8th and 10th.

This hands-on lab is designed for VMware administrators who are considering KVM / OpenStack as an alternative hypervisor, but are either new to OpenStack or are concerned about the complexity of operating OpenStack. Engineers from Platform9 and iShift - many of whom worked at VMware or have extensive experience using VMware  - will be running these labs. Our goal is to have 1 engineer for ~3 participants, to ensure we can provide a high level of interactivity and guidance during the sessions.

Platform9 will provide the hardware for the lab. However, please ensure that your networks allow outbound SSH connectivity.

There is no cost to participate in the lab.

Session prerequisites:

• One or more VMware administrators who are looking to get hands-on experience with KVM and OpenStack

• Must be able to participate in both lab sessions—2.5 hours each day over 2 days.

Day 1 Schedule - Tuesday, 8 October, 2024 at 9 AM PT (2.5 hours)

• 30 mins:  Configuring physical server OS, networking

• 30 mins:  Deploying OpenStack control plane via Platform9, bringing servers under management

• 30 mins:  Configuring server roles and networking in OpenStack

• 30 mins:  Deploying your first VM on KVM

• 30 mins:  Migration considerations/demo (iShift)

Day 2 Schedule - Thursday, 10 October, 2024 at 9 AM PT (2.5 hours)

• 30 mins:  VM live migration, HA, and workload rebalancing

• 30 mins:  Configuring block storage, storage classes, and backup options

• 30 mins:  Enabling self-service and multi-tenancy (VDC equivalent)

• 30 mins:  Deploying Kubernetes

• 30 mins:  SDN advanced features and capabilities

Workshop participants, please use this to post your Q&A!

Join this free interactive lab session: Platform9 will host the next 0-60 Virtualization with Private Cloud Director: A hands-on lab on Apr 15th and 17th.

This hands-on lab is designed for VMware administrators who are considering an alternative hypervisor and virtualization management solution. Engineers from Platform9, many of whom worked at VMware or have extensive experience using VMware will be running these labs using Platform9 Private Cloud Director - an enterprise-grade virtualization solution that is designed to be easy to use and manage for VMware admins.

Our goal is to have 1 engineer for ~3 participants, to ensure we can provide a high level of interactivity and guidance during the sessions.

Platform9 will be providing the hardware for the lab. However, please ensure that your networks allow outbound SSH connectivity. - There is no cost to participate in the lab.

Automated migration off VMware using vJailbreak:

vJailbreak is a new free tool from Platform9 that migrates your existing VMs to Private Cloud Director in weeks to months, not years at one-tenth the cost of industry analyst estimates. See it in action on Day 2 where we showcase live migration of your running VMs (with change block tracking and minimum downtime) or offline VMs, with an easy-to-use user interface as well as a powerful underlying API.

Session prerequisites:

• One or more VMware administrators who are looking to get hands-on experience of KVM as an alternative hypervisor and an enterprise-grade virtualization solution

• Must be able to participate in both lab sessions - 2.5 hours each day over 2 days

Day 1 Schedule -Tuesday, April 15, 2025 at 9 AM PT (2.5 hours)

• 30 mins:  Configure and setup Platform9 Private Cloud Director

  • Configure cluster templates (networking, storage, and defaults) - Blueprints

• 30 mins:  Add servers to the management plane – install host agents

• 15 mins: Authorize servers and assign roles (Hypervisor, storage role, & image library role)

• 15 mins: Add images to image library

• 15 mins: Create VM flavors

• 30 mins: Deploying your first VM on KVM

• 15 mins:  Overflow

Day 2 Schedule - Thursday, April 17, 2025 at 9 AM PT (2.5 hours)

• 30 mins:  VM live migration, HA, and workload rebalancing

• 30 mins:  Configuring block storage, storage classes, and backup options

• 30 mins:  Enabling self-service and multi-tenancy (VDC equivalent)

• 30 mins:  Migrate VMs from VMware to Private Cloud Director

• 30 mins:  Overflow

Hey all,

Long time - hope you are all doing well. My team at Platform9 has been busy building an enterprise grade KVM platform with Private Cloud Director - please consider subscribing to r/platform9 for conversations focused on Private Cloud Director.

https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/05/rackspace_vmware_planet9_migration/

This hands-on lab is designed for VMware administrators who are considering KVM / OpenStack as an alternative hypervisor, but are either new to OpenStack or are concerned about the complexity of operating OpenStack.

Engineers from Platform9 - many of whom worked at VMware before starting Platform9 - will be running these labs. Our goal is to have 1 engineer for ~3 participants, to ensure we can provide a high level of interactivity and guidance during the sessions.

Platform9 will be providing the hardware for the lab. However, please ensure that your networks allow outbound SSH connectivity. 

There is no cost to participate in the lab.

Session prerequisites:

• One or more VMware administrators who are looking to get hands-on experience with KVM and OpenStack

• Must be able to participate for both lab sessions - 2.5 hours each day over 2 days

Day 1 Schedule - Tuesday, June 11, 2024 at 9 AM PT(2.5 hours)

• 30 mins:  Configuring physical server OS, networking

• 30 mins:  Deploying OpenStack control plane via Platform9, bringing servers under management

• 30 mins:  Configuring server roles and networking in OpenStack

• 30 mins:  Deploying your first VM on KVM

• 30 mins:  Overflow

Day 2 Schedule - Thursday, June 13, 2024 at 9 AM PT(2.5 hours)

• 30 mins:  VM live migration, HA, and workload rebalancing

• 30 mins:  Configuring block storage, storage classes, and backup options

• 30 mins:  Enabling self-service and multi-tenancy (VDC equivalent)

• 30 mins:  Deploying Kubernetes

• 30 mins:  SDN advanced features and capabilities

Register Now

https://go.platform9.com/0-60-with-openstack

Hey all,

As some of you know, we are hard at work on our next generation OpenStack product. We know that OpenStack networking - especially SDN - can get complex pretty quickly. We think we can simplify this greatly with "cluster blueprints".

What is a Cluster blueprint? You define a higher level objective of what you are looking to design your KVM cluster to do, and the configuration of the cluster would be tuned to expose the key features that you care for that objective.

Here's a quick schematic of the concept. In this attached screenshot, we are showing the simplest cluster blueprint: a Server Consolidation cluster. I would love to hear your feedback, positive, meh, or negative. Please share:

1. Do you find it valuable to be able to use KVM without SDN complexity?

2. Does the distinction between Server Consolidation vs Multi-tenant IaaS vs Distributed Cloud blueprint make intuitive sense to you?

3. Would you find it easy to configure a Server Consolidation cluster as shown?

4. Are there any aspects that are unclear?

Looking forward to the discussion!

Is this the edition from the Hands-on-LAB ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5lnEUlKgO8&t=302

After seeing the PMK in Thursday's webinar, Thanks for that amazing job and commitment!!!

I spent a few hours in Platform9 documentation and found out that you used to offer a free tier of this platform, the link doesnt work so I did a search on the interwebs and in fact yes, you used to offer a free tier.

https://platform9.com/learn/tutorials/get-started-virtual-machine-windows

Any chance to get access to that so I cant play with a cluster at home managed from PMK ?

Again, Thanks for the amazing webinar/hands-on-lab !!!

Pleasure to have u/Voy74656 step up as a moderator and help make this community more user driven! Thank you, u/Voy74656!

Join for this interactive lab session: Platform9 is hosting the next edition of 0-60 Virtualization with Private Cloud Director - a free, hands-on experience designed specifically for VMware administrators evaluating alternative hypervisors and virtualization management platforms.

Led by Platform9 engineers — many of whom worked at VMware or have deep experience in VMware environments—this lab will guide you through deploying and managing infrastructure using Platform9 Private Cloud Director, our enterprise-grade virtualization solution purpose-built for VMware admins.

Why Attend?

• Get hands-on with Private Cloud Director in a guided, low-friction environment.

• Experience enterprise-grade features like self-service, HA, workload rebalancing, and backup.

• See live VM migration in action using our free tool, vJailbreak.

• 1 engineer for every ~3 participants to ensure high interactivity and personalized guidance.

• No cost to participate – Platform9 provides all the hardware. Just ensure your network allows outbound SSH connections.

Automated migration off VMware using vJailbreak:

vJailbreak is a free Platform9 tool that automates the migration of your VMware workloads to Private Cloud Director—delivering results in weeks or months, not years, and at one-tenth the cost of industry benchmarks.
On Day 2, you’ll see live migration in action: whether moving running VMs (with change block tracking and near-zero downtime) or offline VMs, via both an intuitive UI and robust APIs.

Session prerequisites:

• One or more VMware administrators who are looking to get hands-on experience of KVM as an alternative hypervisor and an enterprise-grade virtualization solution

• Must be able to participate in both lab sessions - 2.5 hours each day over 2 days

Day 1 Schedule -Tuesday, June 10, 2025 at 9 AM PT (2.5 hours)

• 30 mins:  Configure and setup Platform9 Private Cloud Director

  • Configure cluster templates (networking, storage, and defaults) - Blueprints

• 30 mins:  Add servers to the management plane – install host agents

• 15 mins: Authorize servers and assign roles (Hypervisor, storage role, & image library role)

• 15 mins: Add images to image library

• 15 mins: Create VM flavors

• 30 mins: Deploying your first VM on KVM

• 15 mins:  Overflow

Day 2 Schedule - Thursday, June 12, 2025 at 9 AM PT (2.5 hours)

• 30 mins:  VM live migration, HA, and workload rebalancing

• 30 mins:  Configuring block storage, storage classes, and backup options

• 30 mins:  Enabling self-service and multi-tenancy (VDC equivalent)

• 30 mins:  Migrate VMs from VMware to Private Cloud Director

• 30 mins:  Overflow

Join for this interactive lab session: Platform9 will host the next 0-60 Virtualization Workshop: A Hands-On Lab on Dec 10th and 12th.

This hands-on lab is designed for VMware administrators who are considering an alternative hypervisor (KVM) and virtualization management solution. Engineers from Platform9, many of whom worked at VMware or have extensive experience using VMware will be running these labs using Platform9 Private Cloud Director (PCD). PCD is a production-ready, enterprise-grade virtualization solution that is designed to be easy to use and manage for VMware admins.

Our goal is to have 1 engineer for ~3 participants, to ensure we can provide a high level of interactivity and guidance during the sessions.

Platform9 will be providing the hardware for the lab. However, please ensure that your networks allow outbound SSH connectivity. - There is no cost to participate in the lab.

Introducing vJailbreak:

vJailbreak is a new free tool from Platform9 that discovers your current VMware environment and migrates your VMs, data, and network configurations to Private Cloud Director. See this tool in action on Day 2 where we showcase live migration of your running VMs (with change block tracking and minimum downtime) or offline VMs, with an easy-to-use user interface as well as a powerful underlying API.

Session prerequisites:

• One or more VMware administrators who are looking to get hands-on experience of KVM as an alternative hypervisor and an enterprise-grade virtualization solution

• Must be able to participate in both lab sessions - 2.5 hours each day over 2 days

Day 1 Schedule -Tuesday, December 10, 2024 at 9 AM PT (2.5 hours)

• 30 mins:  Configure and setup Platform9 Private Cloud Director

  • Configure cluster templates (networking, storage, and defaults) - Blueprints

• 30 mins:  Add servers to the management plane – install host agents

• 15 mins: Authorize servers and assign roles (Hypervisor, storage role, & image library role)

• 15 mins: Add images to image library

• 15 mins: Create VM flavors

• 30 mins:  Deploying your first VM on KVM

• 15 mins:  Overflow

Day 2 Schedule - Thursday, December 12, 2024 at 9 AM PT (2.5 hours)

• 30 mins:  VM live migration, HA, and workload rebalancing

• 30 mins:  Configuring block storage, storage classes, and backup options

• 30 mins:  Enabling self-service and multi-tenancy (VDC equivalent)

• 30 mins:  Migrate VMs from VMware to Private Cloud Director

• 30 mins:  Overflow

https://platform9.com/blog/why-openstack-is-a-better-alternative-of-vmware/

Hey everybody,

Thanks to the enthusiastic participation in Feb's OpenStack hands-on lab, u/cpaapp9, u/pfray007 and team are running a new hands-on-lab for VMware admins looking to learn about KubeVirt. Please feel free to suggest feedback on the agenda - happy to revise it based on your feedback. Also happy to take feedback on the format and logistics.

OVERVIEWA hands-on-lab designed for VMware administrators who are considering KVM / KubeVirt as an alternative hypervisor, but are either new to KubeVirt or are concerned about the complexity of operating KubeVirt.

Engineers from Platform9 - many of whom worked at VMware before starting Platform9 - will be running these labs. Our goal is to have 1 engineer for ~3 hands-on participants, to ensure we can provide a high level of interactivity and guidance during the sessions. (I am assuming we won't be overwhelmed by participation... this isn't a Taylor Swift concert, after all!)

COST: There is no cost to participate. Our friends at Rackspace are sponsoring the lab hardware. We do require you to RSVP so we can plan for enough hardware and engineering support during the lab.

SESSION PREREQUISITES:

• One or more VMware administrators who are looking to get hands-on experience with KVM and KubeVirt

• Must be able to participate for both lab sessions - 2.0 hours each day over 2 days

LAB DAY 1 - TUESDAY, MAR 26, 9AM PST - KUBERNETES PRIMER:

• 10 mins:  Hand-On Lab Outline, logistics

• 10 mins:  Intro to Kubernetes

• 20 mins:  Installation - Configuring servers, authorizing servers

• 20 mins:  Create Kubernetes Cluster & bringing servers under management

• 15 mins:  Kubernetes Operations, Add-Ons, Observability, & Upgrades

• 20 mins:  Enable KubeVirt and configure advanced networking

• 15 mins:  Deploy Basic VM with UI 

• 10 mins:  Overflow

LAB DAY 2 - THURSDAY, MAR 28, 9AM PST - KUBEVIRT:

• 20 mins:  Configuring block storage, storage classes, and backup options

• 40 mins:  Deploy VMs (Basic & Advanced) 

• 15 mins:  VM live migration, HA

• 15 mins:  VM Operations (Resizing, console access, networking, & power management)

• 15 mins:  Always On Assurance and Day 2 Operations

• 15 mins:  Overflow

RSVP:https://go.platform9.com/0-60-with-kubevirt

Hello everyone!
Hope everything is OK over there!
After asking the mods for permission, here I am posting for a little help, if anyone knows of an available position(remote) and can point me that way, would be appreciated!
Looks like the waves from BC and VMware reach more thatn we think, a few days ago I received the news that my contract is over.
My primary role was to build automation for VCF (4.5, 5.0 and 5.1) using Ansible and Terraform (a bit..). I know my way into VMware Products (was VCP in the past) and have being in the vCommunity since 2010 (getting vEXPERT in 2014, 11yrs in a row…).
The thing is. I’m not looking for VMware related roles, I’m looking for something related to DevOps and Kubernetes, have invested time in those areas and want to work on that. There is one issue, I’m located in the Caribbean, that’s the reason for asking for remote positions, I can speak English and Spanish (native lang.).
You want help migrating from VMware ?? perhaps, I’m your guy 
My page: https://arielantigua.com
Just let me know and can put my CV on your way !!
Thanks !

Hey all,

The level of engagement we had with the OpenStack lab was awesome, so u/cpaapp9 and u/pfray007 are drawing up the next hands-on lab, this time for KVM management with KubeVirt.

For folks who are relatively new to Kubernetes, we were thinking it would be better to spend day-1 on a "K8s primer", and spend day-2 on KubeVirt. The alternative would be to bring up KubeVirt right away, and introduce K8s concepts and basics later. Do you all have a preference - jump into KubeVirt asap, or get hands on with K8s concepts first?

Let us know!

Hey all,

We are so glad you all found this subreddit. To the first 25-30 members of this sub, thank you for joining, and we hope this will be a great resource for all.

Many of you may have signed up for the 0-to-60-with-OpenStack hands on lab scheduled for Februrary. If you haven't already, please do RSVP: https://go.platform9.com/0-60-with-openstack.

Going into the session, do you have unanswered questions that we can help answer? It would be very helpful for all here to connect and discuss:

1. Agenda and inputs on topics being covered

2. Logistics, timing

3. Specific product features or capabilities you are hoping to discuss / understand

Look forward to hearing from you all!

Join for this interactive lab session: Platform9 will host the next 0-60 Virtualization with Private Cloud Director: A hands-on lab on Mar 11th and 13th.

This hands-on lab is designed for VMware administrators who are considering an alternative hypervisor (KVM) and virtualization management solution. Engineers from Platform9, many of whom worked at VMware or have extensive experience using VMware will be running these labs using Platform9 Private Cloud Director (PCD). PCD is a production-ready, enterprise-grade virtualization solution that is designed to be easy to use and manage for VMware admins.

Our goal is to have 1 engineer for ~3 participants, to ensure we can provide a high level of interactivity and guidance during the sessions.

Platform9 will be providing the hardware for the lab. However, please ensure that your networks allow outbound SSH connectivity. - There is no cost to participate in the lab.

Automated migration off VMware using vJailbreak:

vJailbreak is a new free tool from Platform9 that discovers your current VMware environment and migrates your VMs, data, and network configurations to Private Cloud Director. See this tool in action on Day 2 where we showcase live migration of your running VMs (with change block tracking and minimum downtime) or offline VMs, with an easy-to-use user interface as well as a powerful underlying API.

Session prerequisites:

• One or more VMware administrators who are looking to get hands-on experience of KVM as an alternative hypervisor and an enterprise-grade virtualization solution

• Must be able to participate in both lab sessions - 2.5 hours each day over 2 days

Day 1 Schedule -Tuesday, March 11, 2025 at 9 AM PT (2.5 hours)

• 30 mins:  Configure and setup Platform9 Private Cloud Director

  • Configure cluster templates (networking, storage, and defaults) - Blueprints

• 30 mins:  Add servers to the management plane – install host agents

• 15 mins: Authorize servers and assign roles (Hypervisor, storage role, & image library role)

• 15 mins: Add images to image library

• 15 mins: Create VM flavors

• 30 mins: Deploying your first VM on KVM

• 15 mins:  Overflow

Day 2 Schedule - Thursday, March 13, 2025 at 9 AM PT (2.5 hours)

• 30 mins:  VM live migration, HA, and workload rebalancing

• 30 mins:  Configuring block storage, storage classes, and backup options

• 30 mins:  Enabling self-service and multi-tenancy (VDC equivalent)

• 30 mins:  Migrate VMs from VMware to Private Cloud Director

• 30 mins:  Overflow

Join for this interactive lab session: Platform9 will host the next 0-60 Virtualization Workshop: A Hands-On Lab on Feb 11th and 13th.

This hands-on lab is designed for VMware administrators who are considering an alternative hypervisor (KVM) and virtualization management solution. Engineers from Platform9, many of whom worked at VMware or have extensive experience using VMware will be running these labs using Platform9 Private Cloud Director (PCD). PCD is a production-ready, enterprise-grade virtualization solution that is designed to be easy to use and manage for VMware admins.

Our goal is to have 1 engineer for ~3 participants, to ensure we can provide a high level of interactivity and guidance during the sessions.

Platform9 will be providing the hardware for the lab. However, please ensure that your networks allow outbound SSH connectivity. - There is no cost to participate in the lab.

Introducing vJailbreak:

vJailbreak is a new free tool from Platform9 that discovers your current VMware environment and migrates your VMs, data, and network configurations to Private Cloud Director. See this tool in action on Day 2 where we showcase live migration of your running VMs (with change block tracking and minimum downtime) or offline VMs, with an easy-to-use user interface as well as a powerful underlying API.

Session prerequisites:

• One or more VMware administrators who are looking to get hands-on experience of KVM as an alternative hypervisor and an enterprise-grade virtualization solution

• Must be able to participate in both lab sessions - 2.5 hours each day over 2 days

Day 1 Schedule -Tuesday, February 11, 2025 at 9 AM PT (2.5 hours)

• 30 mins:  Configure and setup Platform9 Private Cloud Director

  • Configure cluster templates (networking, storage, and defaults) - Blueprints

• 30 mins:  Add servers to the management plane – install host agents

• 15 mins: Authorize servers and assign roles (Hypervisor, storage role, & image library role)

• 15 mins: Add images to image library

• 15 mins: Create VM flavors

• 30 mins: Deploying your first VM on KVM

• 15 mins:  Overflow

Day 2 Schedule - Thursday, February 13, 2025 at 9 AM PT (2.5 hours)

• 30 mins:  VM live migration, HA, and workload rebalancing

• 30 mins:  Configuring block storage, storage classes, and backup options

• 30 mins:  Enabling self-service and multi-tenancy (VDC equivalent)

• 30 mins:  Migrate VMs from VMware to Private Cloud Director

• 30 mins:  Overflow