Hello there,
I hope that this finds everyone enjoying the weekend? And after a good week I hope? I spent another week in the DG HQ working with developers and that is always a good time. Working also on a vExpert webinar for early August too. Should be a lot of fun.
I visited the Apple store today to get a new speaker to travel with. Listening to it now and it is very good indeed. I have used Jambone in the past but this time it is Bose. While I was waiting for the store to open I heard a couple talking about the Apple Watch. The woman was very negative on it, and he was open to it. I could not help myself, and I joined in. I said I had one and liked it and I thought, nicely corrected some ideas they had, but she wandered off and he stayed and asked questions. One thing he mentioned that I thought interesting was he had only seen one in the wild. Mine. And I have only seen one in the wild - other then mine - my boss has one. So really not sure how many have been sold, but based on my personal experience I think many more should be seen in the wild!
BTW, if you are working on Log Insight Content Packs and you have any issues with the submission tool not working you might find the answer here.
As always, I hope everyone finds something interesting or useful in the tidbits I share today. I have worked hard to find the most interesting and or useful.
Here is a link to the DataGravity VMworld page. It will be updated as we get closer, and during the event so it is a good source of info on us at VMworld.
Michael
VMworld Sessions
Duncan has some good suggestions for VMworld sessions, as does David Hill. Sessions are filling fast. Two I was wait-listed on have been given bigger rooms and now I am in. Rawlinson has a great list of VSAN sessions. I think that Rawlinson is doing 8 sessions this year. That is I believe a record. I remember once I did 3 and it was tough. I cannot even imagine doing 8. Here is some very good ideas from Chris Wahl. All of these lists have some very good suggestions! You need to register quick and make sure anything that is full you wait-list on it and you likely will get in. Either when they move to a bigger room, or when you show up and others don’t which happens a lot. Also, many of these suggested sessions will have audio and video, or maybe just audio with the presentation so even if you miss something you can catch it later after the event. Quite handy! BTW, schedule builder is open.
vSphere 6 - Hardware Version 11
There is a number of changes in the virtual hardware of vSphere 6 VMs and Nick details them in his article.
Web Client Issues in vSphere 6
Here is a good list of issues and solutions in the area of vSphere 6 Web Client.
VSAN Assessment Tool
You can find out more info here on this tool here but don’t waste your time. Buy some SSD / HDD, and test out VSAN (with a NFR license). You can easily prove to yourself that most any apps you have will work on it! But if for some odd reason you don’t want to use VSAN - like maybe you think it is too expensive, you can easily use the SSD with PernixData FVP. So you won’t be wasting your money. Both VSAN and FVP are amazing and great solutions that I do recommend.
VSAN Diagnostics and Troubleshooting Reference Manual
Cormac has done a great job on this document. I know I have shared it before but one of you needs it! If you really want to learn more about VSAN this would be quite useful for you!
Resetting the vSphere 6 vCenter Appliance or PSC root password
This looks like it might work fine. Not supported as the author says but in a crisis sometimes working is all that is needed.
How to create custom ESXi boot menu to support multiple Kickstart files?
This is pretty cool - and I know several people who could use it too! Think about it, each time you boot to your media you get a menu with different choices on it, and each choice is a different kickstart file so it would mean a different install of ESXi. Very nice!
Access the impact of TPS changes of vSphere 6
Transparent Page Sharing or TPS is something that has been very good to us. If memory pages are the same, there will only be one in memory and pointers for everyone. The RAM saving is often enormous. A security issue has developed and VMware has moved to TPS off by default. For many, that is not acceptable. The security vulnerability is quite rare, and unlikely for most, and the RAM savings of using TPS is huge. But with this article you can learn specifically how much memory you can lose (gain) depending on the different settings for TPS. Find out more about the security issues, more info on settings and new defaults can be found here. Background blog article is also available.
What’s New in vSphere 6 — Performance
This document was recently updated. If you downloaded it before best download it again to make sure you have the correct info.
Log Insight Agent: Unavailable Remote Destination
If you use Log Insight, and I certainly do, here is some info on how the agent handles unavailable remote destination. Good to know.
Configuring vROps for the first time
You can find the install article or the configure article. They are well done and useful. I really like in the configure one how they got a symptom and alert going. Hopefully they were be more articles. And by a blogger on a paid assignment. That is a little odd to me. But pretty good for him!
vSphere 6.0 and NSX 6.1
An article on NSX and vSphere. Some important info to watch out for.
Digging for gold: Using Firewall logs to find security issues
You can find in this video some good info on using firewall logs. This was one of the sessions in the recent Thwack adventure.
Microsoft Exchange 2013 shows blank ECP and OWA after changes to certificates
I could see this as being very frustrating. Upgrade or change the cert, and OWA is blank, as is the ECP. But it is easy to fix. Full details here.
A Collective Call to Action - The Need for Data-Awareness in IT
I don’t really like LinkedIn. I do use it for my CV, and I look up other peoples CV when I am hiring or interviewing. So you rarely see me reference articles on LinkedIn. But my boss recently did a pretty cool article that I want to share. His thinking in the article is correct, and I think he has a very good point.
The Skinny on Home Backup
Here is an interesting take on home backup. My world is a little different. Time Machine on Macs using external disk, plus weekly SuperDuper image backup to the external disk. I carry when I travel in my suitcase another external disk for SuperDuper image backups. Why image backup? I lost a hard drive once and it was better to get the new hard drive back up to speed by restoring an image. Then using Time Machine to make it current. Plus I use BackBlaze for the offsite backup. This has all been tested carefully and has done very well for me. What I do not protect is my home lab. I do backups in it - using Veeam but nothing offsite. Will need to do something about that I guess.
24x7ITConnection - its a Small world: Tiny Linux Operating Systems
Tiny Linux is often handy. Find out more here.
Hackers remotely kill a Jeep on the highway - with me in it!
This is pretty interesting article - likely most of you have seen it already? Pretty scary really but remember how much time they put into this project! And updates are coming out from the car companies. You can do the patch yourself too! I believe that this is possible with airplanes too and I don’t know if they are patched or protected better. I would like to think so.
VCDX Vision Quest and Mea Cupla
A really good story about Eric working on his VCDX. Very nicely done, and in fact congrats too!
RecoverPoint for VMs 4.3 now GA
I think that this is pretty cool, it sounds like an interesting release. I am trying to get a copy of it myself to play with. It is downloading as I write this.
Learning Path: VMware vSphere 6 Data Center Virtualization (VCP6-DCV)
This sounds pretty good. But I am a little confused since I cannot find any of the courses that are mentioned. I guess they forgot to say it will be done but is not yet done?
Check Your Mac’s Drive and Reclaim 5 GB of Wasted Space!
I am traveling so only have my MBP with me and I had this 5 GB of wasted space. So Stephen’s article was quite useful. I can’t wait to get home and check my MBA. Incidentally, I had to use sudo in front of the delete command in the article. Thanks Stephen for this!
Apple Music Super Guide coming soon
I have already pre-ordered this. I love Apple Music. But it is a little confusing. I figured out how to download all of the Danny Michel albums I did not have to my iTunes. So my smart playlist for him is now a mix of music I bought, and music I did not buy and it is great. Not entirely sure how I did this but I cannot do it for Norah Jones. My wife is also a fan. She now listens almost exclusively to For You stuff. She thinks she will not buy music or make playlists again. If only SONOS would hurry up and work with Apple Music. This Super Guide could be very useful. If you need help now check this out.
Thanks for reading or skimming this far!
Michael
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