TAS for VMs [Windows] Overview

VMware Tanzu Application Service for VMs [Windows] enables operators to provision, operate, and manage Windows stemcells on Ops Manager.

After operators install the TAS for VMs [Windows] tile on the Ops Manager Installation Dashboard, developers can push .NET apps to Windows Diego Cells using the Cloud Foundry Command Line Interface (cf CLI).

For the TAS for VMs [Windows] release notes, see VMware Tanzu Application Service for VMs [Windows] v2.12 Release Notes.

Requirements

To install the TAS for VMs [Windows] tile, you must have:

• Ops Manager v2.12 and VMware Tanzu Application Service for VMs v2.12 deployed to vSphere, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), or Azure.

• A Windows stemcell. For information about obtaining or creating a Windows stemcell, see Downloading or Creating Windows Stemcells.

The minimum resource requirements for each Windows Diego Cell are:

• Disk size: 64 GB (100 GB recommended)

• Memory: 16 GB

• CPUs: 4

Contents

About TAS for VMs [Windows]

• Product Architecture

Installation Guide

• Downloading or Creating Windows Stemcells

• Creating a Windows Stemcell for vSphere Using stembuild

• Installing and Configuring TAS for VMs [Windows]

• Windows Diego Cells in Isolation Segments

• Migrating Apps to TAS for VMs [Windows]

Admin Guide

• Upgrading TAS for VMs [Windows] and Windows Stemcells

• Troubleshooting Windows Diego Cells

Developer Guide

• Deploying .NET Apps

• Using SMB Volumes in .NET Apps

• Changing Windows Stacks

• Tips for .NET Developers

Limitations

The following limitations affect Windows containers in TAS for VMs [Windows]:

• Windows Server Container Limitations
• TAS for VMs [Windows] Limitations

Windows Server Container Limitations

Windows Server Core Containers are used in TAS for VMs [Windows]. The following are known Windows Server Container limitations:

• Windows Server Core containers support the host VM’s timezone only. In TAS for VMs [Windows], the host and container time-zone is always UTC.
• Windows Server 2019 Core images support only Lucida Console font. No other fonts are supported, and no others can be installed.

TAS for VMs [Windows] Limitations

TAS for VMs [Windows] has the following limitations:

• TAS for VMs [Windows] can be installed in an environment with the NSX Container Plugin (NCP), but NCP cannot be used with Windows containers in TAS for VMs [Windows]. For more information about NCP, see What’s New in the VMware documentation.

• Developers cannot push Docker or other OCI-compatible images to Windows Diego Cells.

• Container-to-container networking is not available for Windows-hosted apps.

• OpenStack is currently not supported for TAS for VMs [Windows]. Contact your VMware representative for information about OpenStack deployments.

• SMB is supported, but Volume Services is not supported.

• Due to Known Issue #244 in Windows Server OS, apps hosted on TAS for VMs [Windows] cannot route traffic when deployed with the IPsec. For more information, see Traffic to containers via NAT stops working when using IPsec to encrypt network connections on GitHub.