Newsletter: February 15, 2015

Hello everyone,

I hope that everyone is well today.  I think that many US and Canadian people get a long weekend this weekend.  I on the other hand, have chosen to travel into the blizzards of New England and the coast of the US.  Should be interesting though as I get to visit one of our clients and that is always good.

I had a week at home, and lots of time in the lab so that was very good.  Next time I am home will be roughly a day or two before vSphere 6.0 pops so it will be fun in my lab and I will be sure to share with everyone how that goes.  I also did an article recently that helped me understand better what was going on with VIN and vR Ops so if you are someone who likes both of those apps you should check it out.

BTW, I updated my restaurants page, as well I added a page for the interesting adventures I have had - at least in the last couple of years.  I will add pictures to the adventures when I catch up on some things.

ABTW, I did my first article on the corporate blog about how I am now the Director of DG Labs & Customer[0].  So pretty big deal to me and a great commitment on the part of our management!

EABTW, I have updated my vC Ops to vR Ops migration article here.  Remember most of my upgrade or migrate articles get updated, or my Win2K12 template article too so best not to print them out, or to remember to check back if you do.

But lots of things today to share, and quite a variety too.  Something for everyone I hope!

Have a great week!

Michael

vSphere 6 - Clarifying the misinformation
When vSphere 6 was announced the embargo that bloggers had was lifted and they were free to talk about their experiences in the beta.  However, the difference between beta software, release candidate and now GA was bigger then normal so there were some mistakes in articles on the Internet.  Here is some clarification on the subject.

vCenter Server 5.5 Availability Guide
This is a most excellent TWP on how you should protect vC but it also covers off knowledge around availability and what it all means.  Definitely worth reading if you design vCenter solutions for customers!

vSphere 6.0 Install Pt. 1: Introduction
This is likely going to be an amazing series on install / configure of vSphere 6.  He did this with previous versions and it was very worthwhile indeed.  Here is the first article, and second.  I am looking forward to his two upgrade articles!  Thanks very much for this Derek.

What’s New with vSphere Data Protection 6.0 and vSphere Replication 6.0
One important things I am very happy about for customers in this article is that VDP is gone, and VDPA is now VDP.  So VDP has more features for customers and they are features that are quite useful - such as the application agents and replication.  But check out the details here.  Some nice new features in VR as well such as compression and support for management networks!

vSphere 6.0 Storage Features Part 4: VMFS, VOMA and VAAI
Cormac forget to add any VAAI info this article, which is something I have done before too - meaning title and text are a little different!  But there is very good info in this article - in particular how VMFS-3 is depreciated.

What is new for Storage DRS in vSphere 6.0
This is pretty amazing information so I am very glad that Duncan has shared it out.  Especially where he mentions it is missing from the What’s New deck!  SDRS has gotten quite a lot of improvements!

Error during deployment of vCenter Server Appliance (v6.0)
This is a good problem / solution article that I am not sure if it will still apply after 6.0 GA or not.  But just in case it is here.  It can be an irritating problem if you do not know in advance.

vSphere 6.0 Storage Features Part 3: MSCS Improvements
Some good news in this, including that we can protect our vC with MSCS.

Check How Much Host Memory You are Saving with TPS
This is a powerful script - used to connect with 500 hosts, across seven vCenters in under 7 minutes.  So very fast to collect memory usage info.  With TPS being disabled in the future that will really impact your memory usage at the host level.  I do not believe there is security issues such that TPS needs to be disabled.  I think that I will be turning it back on to enjoy and appreciate the memory savings as I think the security risk is minor.

Virtual SAN and ESXTOP in vSphere 6.0
Good to know - thanks Duncan - that ESXTOP has some useful additions in vSphere 6 for VSAN.

Log Insight 2.5 - Working with AD groups
The author of this blog has an article about setting up LI to use your AD groups for different LI functions.  Nicely broken down.

Creating a vRealize Log Insight 2.5 cluster with Integrated Load Balancing
A very nice article to help you set up LI and an ILB (integrated load balancer).  Very handy and it covers things off quite well.  I really appreciate the LI team adding in the ILB as syslog and load balancers is a little tricky sometimes. Plus of course the ILB means you keep the source IP on each log entry which is not true when an external load balancer is used.

Automate Log Insight logging of new Linux VM’s provisioned from vRA
This is a quite a good idea and I am glad I learned of it.  You can configure vRA so that any newly provisioned Linux VMs will automatically start reporting to Log Insight.  Very cool.

VMware View Composer resolution guide
I love these guides that VMware’s GSS does as they help you solve problems quicker.  Even if you have don’t have the problem they are interesting as they point you to articles that are all in a specific area - handy for learning.  Find one here on View Composer.

Logging in to a View desktop for the first time fails to download all of the files by Persona
I heard someone talking about this recently so when I saw this thought it was pretty good to share.  Definitely good info to solve issues, but also good to know in advance for your design.  Is it not better to design so no issue rather then solving issue later?

View Events Database Export Utility
From the guy that created the View Event Notifier another cool utility is published.  It will allow you to export View events from the event database.  Very handy to research issues and complaints.  Find out more info on this tool here.

How to bring a down vR Ops adapter object up
Not that I have seen this question before, but I can see how this will be good info to have since it may occur with the adapter in the article or a different one.

vR Ops and Policies
I find Policies in vR Ops quite interesting as they are very powerful.  But with that power comes a little complexity.  You can learn more about vR Ops policies in this article and this one.  One example of how you can use policy is to use it to apply the VMware vSphere Security baseline to your hosts.  Of course, that will likely produce a bit of red!

How to integrate vR Ops badges in vRA 6.2
This is quite interesting and I see it as something that customers will appreciate.  vR Ops health badges seen on VMs in vRA.

Using vRealize Operations Manager to monitor the cluster nodes
A nice article that shows what it looks like and how you manage a cluster node outage.

Importing LDAP / Active Directory hosts and configuring users and groups  - vR Ops
This is quite important.  In my vR Ops world I can only log in using mwhite@domain and not domain\mwhite.  I mentioned this to GSS when I was dealing with them on something else.  But this KB article explains why this is so, and how it can be changed.  If you are implementing vR Ops for users this will likely trip them up at first.  So good info to know.

Installing the vR Ops Management Pack for vRealize Automation
This is a very useful article if you are going to install the vR Ops MP for vRA as there is more to it then you might think!  Great info so thanks Jad very much!

vRealize Automation 6.2 Hardening Guide
If you have vRA in production use, then you should be very familiar with this hardening guide.  Good info actually for any vRA install.

Automatically Deploy NSX and Connect to vCenter
This is quite an article.  Some great info on how to deploy an OVA but also good examples of writing PowerCLI!

Get-View Part 1: Introduction to Get-View
This is quite interesting as I know what get-vm is, and what it produces, and yet using the Get-View command is pretty different but wow does it pull out a lot more info!  Nice article Brian!

Your ESXi host needs more RAM.  Really?
A good article that talks about making informed decisions.  And how incomplete information can really steer you in a direction that is not quite right.

NSX Link-O-Rama
If you want to find the place that has the best, or at least the most NSX links you can find it right here.

The Basic Principles of Data Compression
Here is a nice article on just what compression is, and also where it came from so it is sort of interesting.  It also talks about the different compression options that the different versions of SyncBack has.  You may recall that I think SyncBack Pro is a very useful migration tool.

Designing and planning Veeam backup repository performance
It is so easy to create and use a backup repository in Veeam you might forget that there is more to think about.  Size is not that hard to plan for, and interesting that I learn in this TWP that there are Veeam ONE reports to help with that, but the estimate of the performance is much harder.  There is a tool and process info in this TWP to help you with that planning.  So good info to be aware of for when you are doing work for customers in this area!

VSAN 6.0 Now Ready for Prime Time
Howard Marks writes what he thinks about VSAN 6.0 and he has some good info.  I do disagree with some - I don’t think two VMware snapshots will ruin a VM’s performance in all cases for example, but there is good info nevertheless.

Basics: The Difference Between Bandwidth and Speed
You often hear these two terms - often it seems interchangeable too!  Bandwidth and speed.  It often makes me smile in fact and so when I saw this article on the subject I thought most excellent!

Juniper UTM Components
A nice overview poster of the Juniper UTM product line.  Great details on the product and lots of info.  Thanks to Erin for sharing!

Sockets vs. Cores on a VM Config?
An old discussion item that is still important today.  And I had forgotten about the NUMA impact.

My Personal VCDX Journey
This interesting article from Chris Colotti about how he become a VCDX.  I think he has some very good points.

FVP Linked Clone Optimizations Part 1
This is a nice breakdown of how PernixData FVP and linked clones work together very nicely!  I am quite excited as I have SSD and controllers on order so I can get FVP into my lab!

PernixData and the Cloud
A nice article that talks of a different use case for Pernix.  Accelerating VMs in the cloud.  A good idea I think.

ControlUP 4.1 - The Master Systems Display for your Virtual Environment
Sean has a nice review of some interesting software that I have not seen before.

Internet Explorer Error after Windows Patches
This is a bit of a surprise but good to know as I suspect Michael worked quite hard to fix this!

NetApp from the Ground Up - A Beginner’s Guide
Here is a great collection of articles on getting your NetApp working.  I have gone through a number of the articles and it is a very good series.  Lots of education.  As I am a new owner of a NetApp array I will be doing an article or two on making it work - but very different then what this series is.  More basic about do this or that and follow it by this kind of thing - what you need to make it work!

VMware EUC and Datacenter Visio Stencils 2015
A very nice collection of stencils for Visio. Teradici, VMware, NVIDIA, Oracle, Evernote, Mozilla, Google, Cisco, and Microsoft are all in this collection.  VMware has newly added NSX shapes as well.  You can use these in Visio or even PowerPoint (via drag and drop from Visio).

WireShark is now native on OS X
This is nice for people that use WireShark and are Mac users.

FCC Goes All-In on Net Neutrality
While I am Canadian, and live in Canada, I do spend a lot of time in the US so I do hear what people talk about.  So I know a number of you are concerned about Net Neutrality and so am I.  When bad ideas work in the US sometimes Canada picks them up!  Here is a decent writeup on how things are changing.

Initial Impressions of Photos for OS X Beta
I have talked with a number of you about how Aperture and iPhoto are going to depart later this year and be replaced.  Here is more on that replacement product.

10 Tips to Create a Strong Password Policy
The author of this article does have some good suggestions about passwords.  I would add that you should use 1Password to make sure you have very good passwords, that are different for each service, and you use that tool to generate and supply passwords for the max security!

New firewall for the home lab - Cisco Small Business RV325
I had the RV220 previously and was happy with it. But how this came to be is very interesting. At PEX I was in the vR Ops Bootcamp and the three people beside and in front of me all used the RV220. It has been EOL by Cisco, and we all were thinking of how to replace it. The RV320 or RV325 was picked by each of them, and of course that got my attention and now I have one too. I have a number of the Cisco Small Business networking products and I like them all quite a lot. Better then average UI, certainly better then other Cisco UI’s I have seen, very quiet, and feature rich. Next time I am at home I will be implementing it and will introduce you to it!

Thanks for reading or skimming this far!

Michael

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