If you are learning VMware Cloud Foundation, preparing for VCF 9.1, or simply want a practical environment to test the latest capabilities, there is an important update to the VMware Hands-on Labs catalogue.
Following VMware Explore Las Vegas, the Hands-on Labs catalogue has now been updated for VMware Cloud Foundation 9.1.
The previous VCF 9.0 labs from the HOL-26xx series are being deprecated and replaced with the new HOL-27xx series.
For anyone who has been using the VCF 9.0 labs, this creates one obvious question:
Where did my lab go?
Fortunately, VMware has provided a mapping between the previous VCF 9.0 SKUs and their VCF 9.1 replacements.
| Last Year’s SKU | Lab Title | New VCF 9.1 SKU |
|---|---|---|
| HOL-2601-01-VCF-L | Getting Started with VCF Operations | HOL-2711-01-VCF-L |
| HOL-2601-03-VCF-L | Visualizing the Private Cloud using Dashboards Views and Reports in VCF Operations | HOL-2711-12-VCF-L |
| HOL-2601-04-VCF-L | Troubleshooting the Private Cloud with VCF Operations | HOL-2711-02-VCF-L |
| HOL-2601-06-VCF-L | VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 – Operations: Analyzing Logs Metrics and Network Flows | HOL-2711-02-VCF-L |
| HOL-2601-09-VCF-L | Monitoring Network and Storage Operations In the Private Cloud Using VCF Operations | HOL-2711-01-VCF-L |
| HOL-2601-11-VCF-L | Monitoring Private Cloud Infrastructure with VCF Health and Diagnostics Using VCF Operations | HOL-2711-03-VCF-L |
| HOL-2601-13-VCF-L | Monitoring Applications and Services In the Private Cloud Using VCF Operations | HOL-2711-01-VCF-L |
| HOL-2601-15-VCF-L | Monitoring Security Operations in the Private Cloud with VCF Operations | HOL-2711-01-VCF-L |
| HOL-2601-18-VCF-L | Capacity Optimization Planning and Green Score With VCF Operations | HOL-2711-08-VCF-L |
| HOL-2601-19-VCF-L | Cost Optimization Showback and Chargeback Using VCF Operations | HOL-2711-09-VCF-L |
| HOL-2601-21-VCF-L | Getting Started With VCF Automation | HOL-2711-21-VCF-L |
| HOL-2601-22-VCF-L | Provider Management & Administration with VCF Automation | HOL-2711-22-VCF-L |
| HOL-2601-23-VCF-L | Managing Organizations For All Apps With VCF Automation | Retired (None) |
| HOL-2601-24-VCF-L | Build Modern Applications Using Orgs For All Apps in VCF Automation | HOL-2711-24-VCF-L |
| HOL-2601-25-VCF-L | Deploying Modern Cloud Native Applications Using VCF Automation | HOL-2711-24-VCF-L |
| HOL-2603-01-VCF-S | VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 – Upgrading from vSphere 8 | HOL-2704-05-VCF-S |
| HOL-2603-02-VCF-S | NVMe Memory Tiering End to End Configuration on VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 | HOL-2734-01-VCF-L |
| HOL-2608-01-VCF-L | VMware Cloud Foundation – Maintaining Your Private Cloud | HOL-2704-01-VCF-L |
| HOL-2608-02-VCF-L | VMware Cloud Foundation Networking (VPC) | HOL-2704-02-VCF-L |
| HOL-2608-03-VCF-L | VMware Cloud Foundation Advanced Operations and Tools | HOL-2704-06-VCF-L |
| HOL-2608-04-VCF-L | VMware Cloud Foundation Operations HCX – Getting Started and Migration Planning | HOL-2705-03-VCF-L |
| HOL-2608-05-VCF-L | VMware Cloud Foundation Operations HCX Advanced | HOL-2705-03-VCF-L |
| HOL-2610-01-VCF-L | What’s New in VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 – Platform | HOL-2704-01-VCF-L |
| HOL-2610-02-VCF-L | What’s New in VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 – Automation | HOL-2711-20-VCF-L |
| HOL-2610-03-VCF-L | What’s New in VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 – Operations | HOL-2711-01-VCF-L |
| HOL-2610-50-VCF-S | VCF 9 Single Sign-On Configuration | HOL-2704-01-VCF-L |
| HOL-2630-01-VCF-L | What’s New with vSphere in VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 | HOL-2706-01-VCF-L |
| HOL-2634-01-VCF-L | VMware vSAN – Getting Started and Advanced Topics | HOL-2734-01-VCF-L |
| HOL-2634-02-VCF-S | Enhanced vSphere Replication | HOL-2734-02-VCF-S |
| HOL-2634-03-VCF-L | VMware Live Recovery – Disaster Recovery Use Case | HOL-2734-03-VCF-L |
| HOL-2634-04-VCF-S | VMware Live Recovery – Ransomware Recovery Use Case | HOL-2734-04-VCF-S |
| HOL-2636-01-VCF-L | Unifying VM and Kubernetes Management with vSphere Supervisor | HOL-2704-07-VCF-L |
| HOL-2637-02-VCF-L | VMware vSphere in VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 – Advanced Topics | HOL-2706-02-VCF-L |
| HOL-2637-05-VCF-L | VMware vSphere Automation – PowerCLI | HOL-2706-02-VCF-L |
| HOL-2637-07-VCF-L | Introduction to vSphere Performance in VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 | HOL-2704-03-VCF-L |
| HOL-2637-08-VCF-L | Workload Performance with VMmark in VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 | HOL-2704-04-VCF-L |
| HOL-2637-09-VCF-L | vSphere Performance Testing of ESXi Host Subsystems | HOL-2704-03-VCF-L |
| HOL-2640-01-VCF-L | Simplified Application Networking with NSX VPC | HOL-2704-02-VCF-L |
| HOL-2640-02-VCF-L | Building Resilient Networks with NSX | HOL-2704-02-VCF-L |
| HOL-2640-03-VCF-L | Multi-Tenant Networking with NSX | HOL-2704-02-VCF-L |
| HOL-2649-01-VCF-L | VMware Data Services Manager – Getting Started | HOL-2705-04-VCF-L |
| HOL-2649-02-VCF-S | VMware Private AI Foundation with NVIDIA – Getting Started | HOL-2705-12-VCF-L |
| HOL-2670-01-ANS-L | VMware vDefend Distributed Firewall Getting Started | HOL-2770-03-ANS-L |
| HOL-2670-02-ANS-L | vDefend Firewall Security Journey | HOL-2770-01-ANS-L |
| HOL-2670-03-ANS-L | Advanced Security with VMware vDefend Firewall | HOL-2770-03-ANS-L |
| HOL-2670-04-ANS-L | VMware vDefend Firewall w/ Advanced Threat Protection | HOL-2770-02-ANS-L |
| HOL-2671-01-ANS-L | Load Balancing VMware Cloud Foundation Applications With VMware Avi Load Balancer | HOL-2740-01-ANS-L |
| HOL-2671-02-ANS-L | Getting Started With Avi Application Load Balancing | HOL-2740-02-ANS-L |
| HOL-2671-03-ANS-L | Migrating Legacy Load Balancing using Avi Conversion Tool | HOL-2740-05-ANS-L |
You don’t need your own VCF lab
This is probably the biggest advantage of the Hands-on Labs.
You don’t need to spend hours building a nested VCF environment before you can start experimenting.
VMware provides fully provisioned environments that you can launch directly through your browser.
That makes the labs useful for:
Architects
Validate concepts and understand how the different VCF components fit together.
Administrators
Build practical experience with operations, networking, automation and lifecycle management.
Engineers
Get hands-on with new features without first having to build the entire platform.
Anyone preparing for VCF 9.1
Move from reading documentation to actually working with the platform.
My recommendation if you’re learning VCF 9.1
Don’t just read about the new capabilities.
Pick a topic and get your hands on the platform.
Start with VCF Operations, then move into networking, automation, vSphere, security and the newer capabilities such as memory tiering and Private AI.
The important thing is that the lab environment gives you somewhere to experiment without having to build the entire infrastructure yourself.
And if you have old VCF 9.0 lab numbers saved in your notes, bookmarks or learning plan, check the new SKU before searching for the lab.
The naming has changed from the HOL-26xx series to the new HOL-27xx series.
The full VCF 9.1 catalogue and the complete SKU mapping are available through VMware Hands-on Labs.
If you’re working with VCF 9.1, this is definitely worth bookmarking.
Hands-on experience is still one of the fastest ways to turn a VCF concept into something you actually understand.
