A new version of VMware Tools has been released! v13.1.5.0 is out now.

Unfortunateley the Whats New section does not hint on anything about the install errors we had on Windows Server VMs with v13.1.0 (see this thread: VMware Tools (13.1.0.0.25218885) installation issue with Microsoft OS VMs).

Has anybody tested this already?

What's New
Introduces the Capsule PK Update driver, which updates VMW.NULLPK to the Windows OEM Devices PK on supported Windows VMs (requires Secure Boot and a vTPM device). The driver provides a secure mechanism to update the out-of-date NULL PK during a guest reboot without interrupting TPM-based applications. This capability requires an ESX host version that supports Capsule PK update.
Supported Windows versions:
Windows Server 2025, 2022, and 2019; Windows 11 25H2, 24H2, and 23H2; and Windows 10 64-bit 21H2. You cannot install the PK update driver on the remaining Windows versions until support for those versions becomes available in a future VMware Tools release.
Prerequisites:
For all supported Windows versions except Windows Server 2025, Windows 11 25H2, and Windows 11 24H2, install the July 2026 Windows Cumulative Update (or a later update) on the guest OS before upgrading VMware Tools. Otherwise, you cannot install the PK update driver.
Windows Arm is not supported.
For more information, see Broadcom knowledge base article 423893.
Updates the following libraries:
7-Zip to version 26.01.0
Boost to version 1.91' glib to version 2.86.4
glibmm to version 2.86.0
libiconv to version 1.19
libpng to version 1.6.58
libsigc++ to version 3.4.0
libxml2 to version 2.15.3
libxmlsec to version 1.3.11
OpenSSL to version 3.5.7
pcre2 to version 10.47
uriparser to version 1.0.2
zlib to version 1.3.2

Release Notes: https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/vsphere/tools/13-1-0/release-notes/vmware-tools-1315-release-notes.html

Fusion:

📔 https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/desktop-hypervisors/fusion-pro/26H1/release-notes/vmware-fusion-26h1u1-release-notes.html

💿 https://support.broadcom.com/group/ecx/productfiles?subFamily=VMware%20Fusion&displayGroup=VMware%20Fusion%2026H1&release=26H1u1&os=&servicePk=546858&language=EN&freeDownloads=true

Workstation:

📔 https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/desktop-hypervisors/workstation-pro/26H1/release-notes/vmware-workstation-pro-26h1u1-release-notes.html

💿 https://support.broadcom.com/group/ecx/productdownloads?subfamily=VMware%20Workstation%20Pro&freeDownloads=true

I’ve noticed a lot of attendees at VMware Explore 2026 achieving three or four VCAP certifications. From a customer or end-user perspective, what are the primary benefits of earning multiple VCAPs?

Also, is the VMware Certified Implementation Expert (VCIX) is still a thing, or has it been discontinued?

Hi

I have being requested to do the VCF 9 Implementation proven professional certification but Im comfused regarding the exact exam I need to do...

Which one of this is the one I need to apply?

• VMware Certified Professional - VMware Cloud Foundation Architect (2V0-13.25)
• VMware Certified Professional - VMware Cloud Foundation Administrator (2V0-17.25)
• VMware Certified Professional - VMware Cloud Foundation Support (2V0-15.25)
• VMware Certified Professional - VMware vSphere Foundation Administrator (2V0-16.25)
• VMware Certified Professional - VMware vSphere Foundation Support (2V0-18.25)
• VMware Certified Advanced Professional - VMware Cloud Foundation Automation (3V0-21.25)
• VMware Certified Advanced Professional - VMware Cloud Foundation Operations (3V0-22.25)
• VMware Certified Advanced Professional - VMware Cloud Foundation Storage (3V0-23.25)
• VMware Certified Advanced Professional - VMware Cloud Foundation VKS (3V0-24.25)
• VMware Certified Advanced Professional - VMware Cloud Foundation Networking (3V0-25.25)
• VMware Certified Advanced Professional - VMware Cloud Foundation Architect (3V0-12.26)
• VMware Certified Advanced Professional - VMware Cloud Foundation Administrator (3V0-11.26)
• VMware Certified Advanced Professional - VMware Cloud Foundation Support (3V0-13.26)

thanks

Traditionally, I could just add the new generation hardware to the existing cluster and the same baselines would apply to all.

How will that work once I've converted to Images? Wouldn't the Image for the old hardware conflict with any new hardware I want to refresh with in the cluster?

No vSAN involved.

Hi All,

I use lenovo server SR 650 series.

Do we have this Lenovo customized zip bundle?

Lenovo Customized ESXi 8.0 Update 3k zip bundle

From Broadcom,I see the VMware image only not Lenovo customized one.

From lenovo also,I couldn't find out.

Any ideas?

I'm sure I'm missing something simple, as I'm trying to do this through just ESXi rather than the full vCenter suite, as it's a test system and we're not going to license it. (I'm only using VMware for better capability to load something from production if needbe without translting to ProxMox).

There are physical 3 NICs on this machine:
40Gb Fiber (will be unplugged once we're configured) that plugs into the corp network.

1Gb RJ45 (this will be the primary connection that will go to a Fortigate that we'll VPN into to keep it isolated from the corporate network, but still be able to use our WAN.

1GB RJ45 via a USB NIC (fling) that will connect to a cradlepoint for a completely isolated connection that will be used by our security guy for testing things.

When I go into a VM, and click on Network Adapter 1, the only network that comes up in the dropdown is VM Network. Its port group goes to vSwitch0, which it shares with Management Network.

vSwitch "Isolated" has a port group called "Isolated -Cradlepoint". It's pointed to the the USB NIC, and is pulling an IP from its DHCP.

I have to assume I'm missing something fairly obvious, but I'll be damned if I can figure it out.

Our prod setup has 4x vSwitches, but only 1 (the management network) is being used for a bunch of networks with different vLANs. 1 is a black hole for us to keep separated from the network if it needs to be held onto(no physical NIC).
The other 2 vSwitches are going to iSCSI and vSAN connections, each going to their own teamed NICs.

I have no issue getting the black hole to show up with the production as a drop down option...but I don't see any configuration difference in the networking other than what would be expected for different IP addresses and NIC names.

Hello

We have a DR test scenario scheduled, where one side of our stretched vSAN clusters shall not be used.

The DC and the hosts can remain online, but no VMs shall run there.

In traditional clusters, we can achieve this easily via DRS anti-affinity rules ("VMs must not run on hosts...").

But we also have a VDI cluster, where Horizon constantly provisions new VMs. Those VMs would not be part of the DRS rules, so they would most likely be created on the hosts of the DC that shall not be used during the test. The test is scheduled to run for a whole week.

We would like to avoid putting all hosts of one DC into maintenance mode, because it would cause their vSAN data to be "stale" (outdated/unusable).

How can we leave the hosts participate in vSAN, but NOT accepting compute loads? Without classic DRS rules, because Horizon constantly creates new workloads?

vSphere 8.0U3k without VCF stuff (so no DRS tags I guess).

Does anyone have access to the VDDK Library for VMware 5.1? I am needing to do a transfer from this old system but can't find the tools for the life of me.

Hi all,

I'm at my withs end... I have a Debian (Proxmox) VM running on my Mac using VMWare.
All worked perfectly in NAT mode, after that I've switch to Bridge, all kept working, until now...

The VM is currently in NAT-Mode, has internet, can ping the host.
- IP of the VM is: 172.16.131.137/24
- IP Proxmox is obtained via DHCP

The Host, cannot ping the VM, cannot SSH into the VM.

arp -a on my Mac gives me the following:

? (172.16.131.255) at ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff on bridge103 ifscope [bridge]

I've tried:

• Creating a new VM
• Creating new Network adapters in VMWare
• Switching between NAT - Bridge
• There are no firewalls running/blocking traffic
• Restarted Mac/VMWare/VM
• Gave Proxmox a static IP
• Tried several options found online, most of them applied to Windows though I don't think would be different to Mac...or at least not much.

Nothing of the above changed the behavior.
Host cannot access VM, VM can access internet and ping Host.

I can only think of something small that isn't right...but no clue what else can I do?
Open to try your suggestions.

Thank you in advance.

[UPDATE 02-09-2026]
Ok…so this is embarrassing….
Problem is solved.
Apparently when eliminating some apps and restricting access…I accidentally “told” my Mac that the terminal is NOT allowed to have local LAN access. Changed this switch and all is working again…
My apologies for everyone who dedicated much or little time on helping me out.

I have to admit I am a bit disappointed here. I went to the exam registration and asked if I could take the VVF exam since that’s all we are entitled to, Will never use full VCF (don’t even have the cores needed to run the full stack) and was told the exam voucher was only for VCF. Seems like a bit of an oversight to me.

VVF is a subset of your flagship product and quite a few folks I met / who asked questions in sessions were VVF folks like me.

The exam voucher is only good during the conference and there’s no way I can learn all the missing pieces in a few hours of downtime. Never used NSX , etc.

I will say that I’ve met some very cool folks and the first day sessions (while heavily VCF focused) were good and the Broadcom team at the booth were very helpful in answering a lot of questions I had for my migration path to 9.1

TL:DR let us take the VVF exam for free please.

This is my 15th year to the conference. I thought it was small blast year, the number of vendor booths this year is crazy small. I guess I’ll get fewer cold calls this year.
I picked up my backpack at noon since they started giving them out early but was told for shirts all they had were extra small, small and medium. There is no way 60% of the attendees can fit into those sizes. I know it’s just a cheap shirt, but seems crazy to me.

I have an email that I use for my personal PC's Microsoft Account for Windows 11.

I got set up with a new VM for work, so I connected to the VPN and used RDP for the VM. When I went to Edge to sign into Outlook, it had saved my email that I use to sign into Windows 11 from my personal PC.

Anyone know why this would happen?

When trying to initialize Fortnite after installing VMWare on my Windows computer, I noticed that Fortnite appeared as "servers disconnected". I don't want to bother you with all the things I tried to solve this problem so I'm going straight to the solution.

The problem solved when I triggered down the process related to VMWare just when starting the system, so that triggered the cheat alert, or just made some uncompatibility with eachother. Turning off that automation and restarting the system solved my problem. I hope that helped.

If that's bad written it's bc English is not my first language :)

Don't need the portgroup, so we delete it. But in doing so, all the other portgroups I had created also disappeared.
The other vSwitches still show a vmkernel port that were associated with the portgroups that were created. But vmkernel adapters is also now 0.

But in the Networking \ Port groups page, there are now 0. There were 5 before I deleted "VM Network" portgroup.

This has occurred more than once, so not some random fluke.

Anybody else notice this?
The only other thing that had been done was to rename the existing vSwitch0 to Management via configstorecli (per article https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/426705/rename-a-vswitch-via-esxi-command-line-i.html)

EDIT: well wtf. more cosmetic issues, I guess? So for funsies, I created a new portgroup called "management" on the management vswitch. Poof, every single portgroup reappeared. Every vmkernel adapter reappeared.

EDIT2: I did open a support case. While creating the support case, the "AI Response" did provide a solution (which was what I had found on my own) but the cause does not line up with my circumstance. All my vmkernel ports are on their own portgroup, and the host has exactly 0 VMs. It also doesn't line up with any of the KBs I have found about cosmetic issues with host networking. So we will see what comes of the support case.

EDIT3: Response from support:

I checked internally and these are cosmetic issue and our team is already aware of this issue.
You might also see this error : "Virtual Switches" page fails to load with error "TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'config')" in ESX 9.1 Host Client UI
Those will be fixed in the Next release and its advised to use the vCenter to manage the ESXi host.

The article link for the vSwitch page reporting an error which I also saw once or twice and rebuilt the host thinking it was an actual problem: https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/451032
Seemingly no article on the disappearing portgroups and/or vmkernel adapters.

i am trying to create a LAN VoIP system using Asterisk in Ubuntu Server LTS hosted in VMWare. The host ping to the PBX server is 1.53ms average whilst the PBX server ping to a phone connected to the LAN is very high so much i can't register the phone to the server. Anyone who can help to solve this latency problem, i think im missing something.

I have a client that is working on a VMware training opportunity in Florida in late September 2026. This is a skills development rather than certification focused event.

Due to potential Canada / US border 'challenges', I may need a skilled vSphere trainer to fill in for me. If you have strong teaching skills and solid technical experience with vSphere 8.0, please DM me with your contact info.

Thanks in advance.

I may not be using the correct terminology, but I built some VM's that are on a standard mapped data store. Currently they are an OS disk and some of them have a secondary data disk. I need to migrate them to a raw SAN LUN. The LUN is created and I can see it if I try to add an RDM disk to the VM.

How does one go about migrating the disk, or is it better to just blow the VM away and start from scratch?

I'm googling but not finding much for this specific use case. Just how to migrate disks to different storage LUNs.

I'm in the process of an evergreen deployment of VVF 9.1. I have two hosts in one site and a single host offsite. I want to setup my vSAN on my two local hosts and the witness appliance on my remote host. How does this work? I know that I can't deploy my witness appliance OVA without using vCenter. (it errors if you try deploying it directly on the ESXi host) But I'm supposed to use SDDC to deploy the vCenter, hence I'm going in circles.

Do I just deploy vCenter by itself instead of using SDDC, add my hosts to the cluster, deploy the vSAN witness host to my offsite host, and then use SDDC to add the remaining, necessary VMs to my fleet?

I appreciate any insight that readers can offer.