As usual, my day starts early, navigating through Jakarta’s streets on my way to the office. By around 6:30 a.m., I arrive at the office, have breakfast, and then begin my daily routine as a VMware Engineer.
At Indonesian Cloud, a VMware Engineer serves as second-level support, following the Helpdesk team. Any virtualization or cloud system issues or requests from customers that cannot be resolved by the Helpdesk are escalated to the VMware Engineer.
Daily Activities as a VMware Engineer
This morning, as usual, I started by opening VMware vRealize Operations Manager, a monitoring system used to observe the overall health of the cloud environment. I also checked VMware Log Insight, which is a system used to collect logs from all devices and present them in an easy-to-read and visually appealing dashboard. Everything looked healthy and normal.
To continuously improve my technical skills, I took some time to read VMware articles and white papers available online. The topic I’ve been focusing on lately is VMware vSphere 7, the latest VMware release launched in April 2020. I was quite curious about this version, as it introduces several differences compared to previous releases.
Approaching midday, I received an escalation ticket from the Helpdesk. One of our customers requested assistance in configuring VMware NSX within their virtual data center. The customer wanted to enable VPN functionality on VMware NSX to connect to their virtual data center. I spent almost an hour working on the configuration and testing, and thankfully, everything worked successfully. Afterward, I created VMware NSX documentation, so that in the future, if another customer requires the same configuration, the Helpdesk team can handle it independently.
Lunch Break
It was time for lunch. Due to the new normal situation, I chose to buy takeaway food and eat in the office dining area. It wasn’t as crowded as usual—only about three people were allowed in the room at one time, as occupancy limits were enforced.
Activities After Lunch
After lunch, I received a security announcement email from VMware. After reviewing the provided links and cross-checking our cloud systems, it turned out that a patch upgrade was required. Together with fellow Cloud Engineers, we discussed several aspects: whether there would be any impact on customers, whether downtime would be required, the appropriate schedule, and the steps or procedures for implementing the change request.
I discussed the procedure with my supervisor and requested approval so the upgrade could be carried out according to the planned schedule. After approval, we coordinated with the Helpdesk team to notify customers about the upcoming patch upgrade.
At around 3:00 p.m., it was time to head home. During the new normal period, we are required to start work earlier and finish earlier to avoid rush-hour congestion—especially for those who use public transportation—so we can maintain physical distancing and reduce the risk of COVID-19 exposure.
End of the Day
Once home, I took some time to relax—watching a few selected YouTube channels. As a VMware Engineer, I remain on-call, ready to assist the Helpdesk team during their 24-hour shift if needed. We always work as a solid team to ensure customer services meet the agreed Service Level Agreement (SLA).
That was my day as a VMware Engineer. Hopefully, this story provides motivation and inspiration, showing that the Operations Team at Indonesian Cloud is always committed to delivering the best possible service.
That concludes our explanation. If you would like to read more technology-related articles or need further information about Indonesian Cloud products, please visit Indonesiancloud.com and our VPS website cloudhostingaja.com. See you in our next article.