Hello all,
I hope that everyone has had a very good week, and are enjoying the weekend? It was an interesting week for me. I broke my Apple Watch and went two days without it before it was replaced. That really proved to me that I bought something good based on how it felt to not have it. I also got a new iPhone so that was pretty cool too!
I did an article on moving to a new iPhone, and one article on dealing with upgrading to OSX 10.11 - El Capitan. It was not perfect on one of my machines, and it was on several. So interesting. It is still very worth updating - it has a lot of fixes including some important security fixes. BTW, I have updated these articles more then a few times - same with my Apple Watch watchOS 2 article. BTW, I also updated the URL’s on my reminders page. Sorry it took me so long to get that done. But all the links are good, and it is a little more readable. I also removed most of the old stuff.
I have an exciting week coming up - among everything else I will be upgrading a different part of my lab to 6.0 U1 and getting SRM working. Which I love of course. And I will be documenting various parts of this.
But as always I hope you find something below useful or interesting.
Have a great week!
Michael
Alert - Heads Up! ESXi 5.5 Update 3 can crash VMs after snapshot delete
This is an important issue. Remember this might happen during backup activities so even if you don’t use snapshots much this might impact you. I heard about it here first, and there is a KB article now with more info. There is more info in the VMware and Veeam forums as well. Thanks for this Magnus!
Erasing existing disk partitions now available in the vSphere Web Client (vSphere 6.0 U1)
I had not noticed this. So I am very glad William has written about it!
Reconfiguring and Repointing Deployment Models in vCenter Server 6.0 Update 1
This is something a few of us should do. I updated my personal lab to 6.0 (internal PSC) before I realized it would be best to not do that and have an external PSC. It quickly became a best practice to have an external PSC. With Update 1 you can change your configuration if necessary but I will still consider it good idea to have an external PSC. Having the ability to change this in U1 is pretty cool and you can learn about it here. BTW the same author has another good article on U1 and the update to it as well.
VSAN Stretched Cluster and Health Check Plugin Guides
Ken talks about several docs that are out now that Cormac did to help people do VSAN 6.1 stretched clusters, and for people to better understand the Health Check plugin. Great job on these! Duncan has an article about designing a VSAN Stretched Cluster. Very nice too. Cormac had a session at VMworld on VSAN Monitoring and Troubleshooting.
VMware All Flash VSAN Configuration and Setup
A nice article on the setup of the all flash VSAN which is sort of cool for a home lab. I bet he will have better then OK performance on this one. He covers off nicely how to ID and tag the performance tier.
VMware Tools LifeCycle: Why Tools can Drive you Crazy (and How to Avoid it)
Brian has a nice article that will teach you about VMware Tools from the point of view of the host. It also talks about something important - a way to have a centralized VMware Tools, which is something I recommend you do. Often people do that to make Auto Deploy work a little faster, and that is a good idea, but this is a good idea for everyone since it helps with keeping the latest VMware Tools in all of your VMs.
Virtual SAN Licensing and Packaging for VSAN 6.1
Some good info by Duncan on the different packaging options for VSAN.
VMware Certificate Authority, Part 2: My Favorite New Feature of vSphere 6.0 - the Architecture
You can learn lots about the 6.0 Cert Authority in this article and it is clear and easy reading. But, you can also learn how to have a browser securely connect with your vC with no prompt about certs. I tested it in Chrome and it worked great. One thing to remember is when you download the certs there are two in the zip. You only need to rename the one that is *.0 to *.cer and double-click on it. Nice!
Want to learn more about VMware Virtual Volumes (VVols), here’s 3 great sessions to help you
Here is an article that has collected three very good sessions to learn about VVols. VVols has been a long time coming but it is a very good change and one that customers have wanted for a while! Even without knowing what it is.
DRS and VM / Host Affinity Groups in VSAN Stretched Cluster
Cormac has an excellent article about using VM / Host affinity groups in a VSAN Stretched cluster. This is good info on using groups for anything. For example I use them in one lab to make sure that AD DC’s are never on the same host at the same time. So very useful info from Cormac. Like always!
Network port diagram for vSphere 6.x
Nice diagram - I would love to print it out big. Very useful info.
Applying a patch to ESXi results in host panic after the host reboot
I hope you are not on vSphere 5.0 as you could have an issue patching. I suggest upgrading! See this KB Article for more info.
Alert - Heads Up! Log Insight Integration Issue When Upgrading to vR Ops 6.1
You may not see LI notification messages in your vR Ops 6.1 after you upgrade. You can find more about that in this article as well as a warning of something not to do, and a workaround.
Log Insight 3.0 UI: Snapshots
So glad that Steve wrote about this new feature in LI 3.0 as I had saw it the other day and wondered about it. If you want to know what the heck a LI 3.0 snapshot is you should read this. Very handy.
Log Insight 3.o UI: Event Trends
Steve has a series on the go about LI 3.0. This article is about Events and Event Trends and is a pretty powerful tool. Certainly one that I have not used much. So very interesting in fact.
VDP appliance fails to re-balance after adding disk space using the expand storage wizard
This is an issue that will not occur if you are using VDP 6.1. If you are not using 6.1 and add disk it will not be added and then usage re-balanced and you will get error messages. So upgrade. Here is more info.
Black Screen after removing VMware Tools in Windows 7
Chris had an interesting problem and found a good solution. Definitely one to remember as you may not see this exact issue but the solution could be useful!
Limiting PCoIP Bandwidth using View ADM Templates
Chris is implementing ADM templates for View the first time and for a good reason and I know that this is something that other View customers - out of my past - might want to do that have not yet. So some good info on getting these templates working and on limiting PCoIP bandwidth.
Horizon EUC Access Point Configuration Script
Sean has really helped out here. He has done a PowerShell script to configure the new EUC Access Gateway. It has no UI and you need to use the REST API to configure it. So thank goodness for Sean’s script!
Application-Delivery Options in VMware Horizon 6
A whitepaper on the different options to consider when thinking about application delivery. This is not technical, and is a seriously ODD PDF. Interesting to me though.
iOS View Client 3.51 now GA
This updated iOS View client is in the App Store and has an interesting new feature. Touch ID support. However it will require View 6.2 and some AD changes. Sounds pretty good. Way better then my complex password to type! I have not moved to 6.2 yet as I am a little worried about the new Access point replacing the security server. This is a nice improvement but now it is not a very quick and simple update. I have to get more info, and set aside some time. Plus , the only UI for this access point is API so that is interesting too!
Tips for Configuring a New VRO 6 Appliance
I think that having a VRO appliance rather then on Windows vCenter is a good idea. And of course if you use the VCSA like I do then the VRO appliance is key. Some great tips here by Rob Nelson. I will need this info in the near future so very handy!
vRealize Automation Load Balancer Settings
Here is some info on load balancing in a vRA world. Nice as it is good to know what works in this complicated space.
So much going on - tons of releases
Chad has an article talking about a bunch of EMC releases. I want to point out to several that I think are pretty important - one is the Virtual Storage Integrator - something that not enough EMC customers are using. I lost track of how many Customers I helped install this for. Also, the EMC Storage Analytics 3.3 is a pretty powerful tool that again more EMC customers should use.
NFS Export Settings for vSphere
An interesting article about understanding NFS export settings so that you understand more about the connection process. Especially if you are using something (like a Linux based NFS host) that has no docs.
Loving Meraki Client VPN for Remote Administration
A nice story about the setup of a client VPN. Certainly easier then I am used to which is the authors point.
PernixData Architect - decoupled datacenter management
Frank has an interesting article about the new - and not yet shipping - Architect product. Seems very cool in deed. I love the screenshot in the article. A nice way to see useful info.
New PowerCLI Example Scripts Github Repository is now Live!
Brian has an a Github repository now which makes it easy for people to find his scripts, and contribute too as well.
Rubrik reaches version 2.0 in a few short months
A nice review of the features in v2 of Rubrik. One is application consistent backup. I wonder if they will do that as nice as Veeam does - pushing out the agent when necessary, and removing it when done!
New KB articles published for week ending 9/26/15
A number of interesting issues seen in this list of new KB articles. In particular there is one about troubleshooting provisioning errors in View (KB 2131525) and one about troubleshooting load balancing in Openstack (2132825).
Nested ESXi on vCloud Air - Links
David Hill has a great collection of links to articles on nested ESXi on vCloud Air. If you are going to do this there is some great info to help available via these links.
Avoid data loss: Veeam Endpoint Backup vs. CryptoLocker
Some good points in this article to avoid CrytptoLocker type issues. But also issues from lost media or whatever. Good ideas.
Prepare the Enterprise for Office 2016!
Some good things to think about in this article about Office 2016 that will pop soon.
Office 2016 Deployment Tool Released
This is the tool that enterprises will need to prepare a repository and package to roll out of Office 2016. Very handy - whether 10 people or 1000.
New Hands-on Labs - Variety Pack Released
They are continuing to release more and more of the VMworld HOL for everyone to work with outside VMworld. Find them here. Which is mighty fine indeed! See what they just released here. This along with these and these earlier.
VMware Virtual SAN Review: HCIbench Synthetic Performance
This is a well done review and useful if you are getting push-back on VSAN due to performance. It confirms what I already knew - VSAN is fast enough for most customers and in a variety of roles too.
Stick a Needle in Your IOPS
A very nice breakdown in this article. Good info and it does really put IOPS in their place!
Sophos UTM 9
A very short article on someone using the the UTM 9 appliance to protect their home lab. That is a useful tool and free for home use. Pretty nice.
HOWTO: Fix Veeam v8.0 NFC errors with vSphere v6.0 U1 using SSLv3
If you are using the GA of Veeam and vSphere U1 and doing backups of VMs on NFS you may see an issue. In fact probably will see an issue. This is due to a change that VMware did - in not supporting SSL method of connection any longer. And Veeam has an issue on how they deal with that choosing SSL or TLS for communication. Find out more and a workaround here.
VCDX: Troubleshooting Scenario
This is a little different troubleshooting but the article is about what you need for the troubleshooting part of your VCDX. But it is also good info for troubleshooting too. I also like the chart.
VCDX - Why Assume Anything?
This article is talking about why assume anything in designs for VCDX. Outside of VCDX, when I was a PSO kind of guy, I did use assumptions. I had in my statement of work that I assumed DNS / NTP / Active Directory was healthy. I did that to keep costs more predictable and smaller. Of course often they were not healthy and so I got to fix them but for money outside of my project. So I think it worked well.
Troy’s ultimate list of security links
This is a most excellent list of security links. I am most impressed. I have added this URL to the Reminder page so that you (and me) can always find it.
CloudPhysics - VM likely to run out of guest disk space soon
I got an email recently from CloudPhysics telling me that one of my VMs - in fact my Veeam server - was going to possibly run out of space in the next week. I am a big fan of CloudPhysics, and I use the Free Edition so this was sort of cool. A great product. Previously I used them to do a morning check of my lab. Very handy. I would still do it if I had an enterprise version.
XcodeGhost Exploits the Security Economics of Apple’s Ecosystem
You may have heard about this interesting security issue on the Mac. It is mostly impacting Chinese apps but the vector is quite different and interesting. Find the story here.
#vBrownBag TechTalks Schedule - VMworld USA 2015
You can find the schedule of the talks here, and there are some very cool chats. Here is mine, and here is one by my boss that is interesting. I really liked the one that Chris Wahl did. Irfan did an interesting one about how UI’s suck.
Direct video links to VMworld 2015 US sessions
William has done a big favor for us all in this article. He has put a list together of all of the sessions that have video. Very handy indeed.
Custom complications on watchOS 2: Explained
I tried to explain to someone what complications were and I did not do so well. But this article does. It is in fact not an Apple created term though they do use it when talking of specific things in the watchOS.
iPhone 6s vs iPhone 6
In case you wonder if you need an iPhone 6s check this out. I have one and love the speed and Force Touch. In fact I think Force Touch is a game changer. Very handy.
Apple TV (4th Gen) - I really want one!
I have a number of Apple TV units, including one with a 250 GB hard drive in my tech closet. My wife and I watch TV via the Apple TV using either iTunes stuff or NetFlix. So we have been doing this a long time and are happy with it. But this new 4th Gen Apple TV is pretty exciting. I love how you can use Siri to look for stuff, and get - while you are watching something - info popped up on the movie or TV show. And the Siri search can find something and you see if it is on iTunes, or NetFlix, or Hulu and you will be able to see if it is free or not. The Setup sounds easier too. In theory the new remote will be able to turn on / off my TV as well as deal with select inputs and volume. But you can find out more here and here.
The Hazards of a National Geographic Photographer….
Someone keeps track of the issues that National Geographic photogs experience. A great list. It is a little worrisome but I recognize some of these! I am so happy I have never experienced acid dripping caves (see more on them here).
Thanks Apple - for replacing my Apple Watch so fast!
On Tuesday morning I accidentally broke the crystal on my Apple Watch. I had a false start getting it replaced, which lost most of a day. But I got the replacement watch Thursday morning. Since I broke it I did not get a free AppleCare replace but it cost me only 89 US$. So pretty good indeed. I am very impressed with the process - it was pretty smooth. I even got replacement tape to seal the box when I sent it back. BTW, I saw while researching this newsletter that several people will not wear the Apple Watch when showering. I shower with it every day and in fact I heard Tim Cook say he showered with it every day too. I have not had issues - I even mention this in my article about what I like (and don’t like) about the Watch.
So I finished this a bit early today and I get now to play with this.
Thanks for reading or skimming this far!
Michael
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