Hello all,
I hope that everyone had a good week, and are enjoying the weekend? I had a good week and accomplished some things that are important. I may have also solved some serious issues in my lab. We will see. If I have, I will be sure to share out what the heck happened. And I will mention the two very smart people who helped. Very odd issue for sure.
I use eero wireless mesh in the house. I had a problem with it once, and I may have an issue again. We will see. I just started the free 30 day trial for their improved security option called eero plus. Update - confirmed, I have that issue again. Was dealt with more quickly and this time they seem to understand what happened and are escalating it so hopefully fixed soon.
I helped someone move to a new iPad and so I got to use this article again and updated it. I think 11.0.2 is a better version to update too, and Prime Video is better behaved now compared to an older version.
I was talking with another blogger recently and we were discussing how maybe we would not share or talk about blog articles that don’t have dates on them. I have been fooled once or two on articles I thought interesting then realize the version was quite old, and way less useful then I originally thought. So it would not help or educate for current versions of things. Not sure, but I will look much more closely at things that don’t have dates.
If you are using High Sierra, which I am and find it good and not an issue, you should know that Time Machine can use High Sierra APFS formatted partitions as source but not destination. So do not be efficient and upgrade your external media. And it seems that if you do, and want to use Disk Utility to reformat your newly format APFS drive as something else you cannot. Update: I am told you can but it tricky. Will test.
In case you are curious, I have been listening to some very different music lately. First is Halloween Set 2017 from BenJammin, and the other is Cuphead by Kristofer Maddigan. Really like this stuff!
BTW, I do like very much hearing from you, and when you say hi at events that means a lot. So thanks again, and don’t hesitate to reach out if you want or need too!
ABTW, Do you like movies / TV? Did you see this Verge article with the new trailers? I am looking forward to Stranger Things, and more.
But, as always, I have limited time, and lots to share. So lets get started!
Have a great week!
Michael
Getting to Grips with NFS v4.1 and Kerberos
Cormac has quite the story of getting NFS v4.1 working in his lab with vSphere. Definitely worth reading if you are thinking of doing the same thing! Also glad he is updating the NFS paper as that needs an update.
New white paper available: vSphere APIs for I/O Filtering (VAIO)
Duncan has an interesting new WP on an important subject - VAIO. This exciting and new technology that will enable some interesting stuff - currently VM Encryption but also in the future Veeam will use if for replication - and that is pretty cool.
What is the overhead for Swap in a stretched cluster?
Duncan has a new article that is quite helpful. I wondered about this very subject long ago. I had to chase dev guys, but now there is a good article to help and reminded.
Resetting vSphere 6.X ESXi Account Lockouts via SSH
This is cool functionality when you can control the configuration of when your ESXi accounts are locked. It is very good to use! When that is configured you may lock yourself out! Find out how to reset that via SSH in this article.
What’s new in vSphere 6.5: Security
Mike has an article that is all about the security in 6.5, and it is quite a list of good info, and it is worth reading so you get reminded of the security options that you might need. Good info! This is stuff that is not just for government three letter agencies, but things like SecureBoot will make sure malware doesn’t impact your server and malware in this case includes badly written code - assuming badly written code doesn’t get signed!
The difference between an isolation and a partition with vSphere
Some great learning about this subject that I think is pretty good. I have heard people talk about this wrongly too.
A Reference Architecture for Deploying vSphere Integrated Containers on top of VMware Cloud Foundation
Kyle has a very interesting article about a reference article on doing vSphere Integrated Containers on Cloud Foundation and doing it in a way that you will know it works. I used to work with Kyle and he is very smart and so this is great info.
Free e-Learning: vSphere Integrated Containers Fundamentals
Would you like to learn more about vSphere Integrated Containers? I do, and when I have time I will get it here.
Horizon View Content Pack for vRealize Log Insight
They have updated the View Content Pack, and that is good. I have had troubles with making the older version work. Make sure you pay particular attention to the Setup Instructions otherwise your dashboard will not have anything interesting in it. However the setup info is not that detailed. You need agents on the desktop and brokers and with different config - good there is templates to use. There is likely some other config necessary. But once it is working it is very useful info you seen in the dashboard.
Getting Started with PowerCLI for VMware Cloud on AWS - PowerCLI Edition
Kyle has a great article about how to get started with PowerCLI interaction with VMWonAWS and particularly since they made it so easy to do things that way. Very cool. The limited permissions model means things are a little different so important article that Kyle did!
New Release: PowerCLI 6.5.3
You can see in this article all about a new version of PowerCLI. They are bringing out releases so fast I am most impressed. I also like how easy it is to update - Update-Module VMware.PowerCLI . Do you want to update automatically? You can have a customized auto update using the info in this article.
Do you have multiple vROps instances?
Would you like to have a single pane of vROps that covers off all of your vROps instances? I have met some of you that need this - and now you can. Find out how, here.
Leveraging the Platform you Know, Realizing the Benefits of the Self-Healing Data Center
We are getting closer to the self-healing data center, and in fact there are people that are close to that but most are not. Find out more here as I do thing this is a good goad to work towards.
First Look at vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager
More info on this new product - bit of a look here. I think for many customers, who have one instance of vROps, then it is not really necessary to have vRSLCM but when you have a few vROps, and vRA, and who knows what else it could be really helpful. If I had been responsible for the design of vRSLCM I would have built it for the enterprises it has been built for, but also for partners so they could sell a nice service for doing installs of complex software. BTW, here is the product brochure.
VPN Configuration to VMware Cloud on AWS using pfsense
The time I was in VMC during beta I did not connect my SDDC to my lab. But if I wanted to, and I do the next time I am in, I will use William’s article to make it work. Very handy info.
2017 TechTalks at VMworld
I have shared this link out before but there is really some good content in these short vBrownbag videos from VMworld.
vSphere Management Assistant Replacement
Edward has a great new tool - in fact several - that you should know about. With VMware not updating the vMA any longer Edward has created one. Pretty useful. Find out more in this article. I am building a new one, and have played with his stuff before. Very cool.
SolidFire & VMware VVols
A nice breakdown on the VVols and SolidFire technology. This is a review of a session that Andy Banta did somewhere recently. Good info of course as Andy is wicked smart!
SecureESX - audit vSphere against Security Configuration Guide
I got this working in my lab recently - so I can look at a Log Insight Dashboard and see the security state of my lab as compared against the VMware Security Configuration Guide. What is also very cool is as I fix things it is reflected quickly in my dashboard. It is on a 30 minute refresh so very handy. You can adjust the settings in the Security Configuration guide that this tool references so quite useful even if you don’t want all the settings in the Security Configuration Guide.
Hating Yourself: The VCDX Way!
This was a good read. And I think it shows a very healthy attitude too. So I am glad that Tim is doing it this way, and thinking that way too. Family is first. And good luck too, I know you will be a VCDX. When you are, drinks are on me!
Can the combination of a default password and an unpatched asset get you military secrets? Yes.
In this article you are reminded again how insecure the world is, and how easy some of the basic stuff is and how it can help. Patching, and complex passwords are a good combination for a very good start in protecting yourself.
The Best USB-C Adapters, Cables, and Hubs to Connect Old Accessories to your New Laptop
Stephen shared out once again this article that is full of very good info on USB-C adapters. Very good info, and as a user of USB-C I love USB-C and can’t wait for my iPad and iPhone to be that too! There has been some slight rockiness in this area though so it is good for people to have some good info.
Introducing Backblaze Computer Backup Release 5.1
In this article they talk about the next release of Backblaze and it is interesting in that it includes features for enterprises that use BB for their computers. This is pretty useful and I had no idea that they did that. I use BB in my house for both my Mac’s and my wife’s too. It is key to have a good backup outside of the home! I have used BB for quite some time - more then 3 or 4 years I think and strongly recommend it as a very good choice.
Windows Server 2016 Automation with PowerShell Cookbook - Second Edition
This sounds pretty good - the technical review is saying some nice things about this Win2K16 automation guide. Sounds quite good actually.
Making Royal TSX Even More Awesome
You can find some cool stuff in this article about adding Clarity icons to Royal TSX along with some other cool info.
Datanauts 105 - Cryptocurrencies and the Blockchain
This was quite an interesting episode and I liked it. It had links to some very good learning too - blockchain, and cryptocurrency.
Valar Morghulis - Myth and Fact of Single Failure Tolerance
Andre has an article about a technical paper that sounds pretty interesting. It is about the subject of how a particular configuration (1FT) cannot handle the disk failure that is commonly suggested it can handle.
Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager Integration
If you know the OpBot people, they have a performance analyzer solution, and they have now hooked Veeam’s Enterprise Manager to it. Sort of interesting I think.
Veeam and ReFS - making things work!
I have had some people talk about this lately. Most of what I see is article to do this but not many on some of the other mechanics. So I wrote this article a while back, but I just added to it an MS link to a good ReFS storage overview. BTW, you likely heard how MS says that ReFS is not for SAN attached storage. The thing is that MS cannot test all the SAN’s and their controllers on the market. But, if you are using Tier 1 arrays that are enterprise class you can be comfortable using ReFS on them.
Veeam Backup Maintenance - several parts to this series
You can find Part 1 - Storage-Level Corruption Guard and Part 2 - Full Backup File Maintenance and both are interesting and useful articles for any Veeam users.
Connecting to Home or Office Networks with Veeam Powered Network
I heard some chatter lately about people accessing their home network - I travel the world and I have always used View as it has always worked well for me. But Anthony is using something else and it works pretty good. Find out more here.
Plugging into vSphere 6.5 enhancements to increase Availability
Anthony has a nice article that talks about new stuff in vSphere 6.5, in particular what is new and how it relates to Veeam.
Demystifying Recovery Objectives
In this article you can learn more about recovery objectives like RPO and RTO. Good info to know if / when you are going to talk about BCDR and DR work. I don’t like how they use Tier -1 to describe the mission critical apps as when you do work in this space - like I have - there is a lot of multiple tier apps and you end up talking about tier 1 of the multi tier apps and do you mean the app or the model so you want to avoid confusion if possible.
Infineon TPMs Generated Insecure RSA keys for Lenovo, HP, Fujitsu Devices
I saw this thanks to Mike but it is worrisome. Not good if you are using this functionality!
Looking Around: Horizontal Space
Stephen shared a link to this article that is quite interesting - which is why he calls it a Good Read.
Speed up iCloud access with macOS High Sierra content caching!
This is amazing. We do have a fair number of Apple devices in our house. And having a caching server could be very nice indeed. And you don’t need a Mac server for this. I have an Mac mini not working very hard that could do this task nicely. Remember when you update an iPad or iPhone they have to download it first, and how long it takes? Imagine doing that just once for the house.
How to check the AppleCare warranty status on your iPhone, iPad, Watch, TV, or Mac
If you have Apple devices this is a good article to remind you about how to confirm your warranty status on the device.
Plex vs. EyeTV: Which Mac DVR App is Best?
I know several of you use Mac based DVR but I heard someone else was asking about this recently and so maybe this helps.
How to setup LTE and cellular on Apple Watch Series 3
In case someone needs help with setup of cellular on their new watch this article will help. I have not done this yet with my new watch as I want to use it without LTE for a while so I have a baseline. So far one very important thing to mention is the battery usage is greatly improved over the Series 2.
Windows security updates broke 30 of our machines
In this reddit thread it is a shame about how many machines are impacted by an issue in a recent MW patch. I am happy the solution is also mentioned but I would involve MS support.
ShiftLeft promises to protect your code even when you ignore security threats
This is a cool startup that will be able to protect your code running in the cloud. A very interesting premise but I think and important one too.
Warning: Microsoft is using Cortana to read your private Skype conversations
Not surprising but I suspect this will be useful to many. Curious how well it will work out.
OnePlus OxygenOS built-in Analytics
You can learn more about the analytics that are happening in the OnePlus phone in this article, which is interesting in fact, or what OnePlus has to say about it in this article. I know a couple of you that use the OnePlus so I hope that this is interesting for you.
Do you think we all exist in a simulation? Or maybe we do?
These guys have figured out we aren’t. Probably.
Danger - iOS Privacy: steal.password - Easily get the uer’s Apple ID password, just by asking
In this article it talks about a potential security issue that is something that can fool many people if it shows in the wild. But, remember when iOS prompts you to authenticate with iTunes, you can confirm it is legit by pushing the home button. If it is real the prompt will not go away, if it is fake it will go away when you push the home button. I am not aware of any malware like this in the wild at this time.
60 Mac Tips, Volume 2 Release
I saw the first volume of this and was quite impressed - lots of cool tricks and with video and good descriptions. So volume 2 should be good and it is downloading in the background.
This failure taught me a lesson I’ll never forget
Were you using Office when Microsoft Bob showed up? I was, and I remember it. Taking care of customers and making Office work good for them was a little different when Bob was involved. And I learned recently who was responsible for it. Also learned how she learned from it - check it out.
The airport bomber from last week you never heard about
This report is amazing both for what it is and also for the fact I did not hear about it (particularly via twitter) until today. A nasty actual bomb was dropped off in a busy part of the airport. The guys watching the CCTV figured out something was wrong and started looking for what was going on and found the bomb.
SOAPBOX - Why this veteran is taking a knee
I saw this article and thought it pretty interesting and very well done. I am not a US ex-soldier but rather a Canadian one and I agree with the article. Yes, some of you might think this is none of my business. But I worked with a lot of US soldiers and care about them. I work now and in the past with a lot of US people and they too are important too me. And the US and Canada are neighbors so I care about that too. And having said all that, I do myself always stand for the flag and the anthem, in the US or Canada.
Thanks for reading this far, or even skimming this far,
Michael
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