Hello all,
I hope that everything is good with you all? Things good here. A nice collection of things to share this time and as always I hope everyone finds something interesting.
Friday I found out that I had made the 2018 vExpert. Which is very exciting and I am proud to be part of it. This is, I think, my fifth year so that is pretty cool! One of the best parts of this is the vExpert Slack channel. Some very smart people and very nice place to chat, but also to listen. You can see the announcement in this article.
I upgraded my storage array in the lab - the Nexenta one that is, and so updated the Fusion upgrade article, and the array one too. BTW, the array upgrade article is just updated for new release notes or whatever, but the article is always the same one.
I also revisited my SureBackup job article to make sure with all the version changes in Veeam and vSphere it still worked good. And it does but I did update things a little (spelling of course). This is a very cool functionality in Veeam: the ability to restore a VM, check that it responds via VMware Tools, on the network, and that services are running. So the best way to confirm things work. I do it every night for my important stuff. So if you are a Veeam customer and don’t know what I am talking about check out this article.
BTW, if you have nice things to say about Veeam, please share them with your SE. He or she will appreciate that. But, if you have feature complaints, or suggestions, I love to hear those. Never hesitate to reach out to me with those.
Another BTW, I have removed both Piper, and Canary from my home inventory. Piper did not do enough - meaning no auto arm for example, and poor video. Canary was pretty darn nice, and nice auto arm and geo fence, but it was having issues with recognizing people vs. shadows. I have found a new solution, that I saw reviewed, that can do things like “what did the dog do after I left”, or “what did the kids do with the babysitter”, or “did the kids come home yet”. So I am pretty excited about it - not that I have a dog, or kids, or babysitter but it suggest some interesting possibilities. We will see how it goes, and I will be sure to share how it goes.
I need to add, that all Veeam customers, along with Update 3, got a six month license for Veeam Agents for Windows / Linux. I think that this is a nice way to do a very deep evaluation of these agents. I think they work pretty good and so I am impressed Veeam is doing this. You should see the license in your customer portal and if you don’t, you can email [email protected] for help.
Lets get started, and have a great week!
Michael
Top 20 vSphere articles for February 2018
Some great articles in this list. In particular, best practices for upgrade to vC 6.5, and unable to log into root account, and how to reset root account password are all interesting. Since these are the top 20 articles that vSphere support people used to help customers solve problems it makes them sort of important. So this is not only good info but also sort of topical.
VMware Cloud: Expanding to Europe, Delivering new Services to protect and support business critical apps
Raghu has an article that talks of the new stuff and it is interesting. I was invited to participate in the Log Intel option but never was able too as I was not able to get access to an SDDC to use. I am pretty excited about it. BTW, I knew Raghu when I was at VMware, and even got to chat with him a few times. I ran into him in a Tokyo coffee bar once. He is wicked smart about business, and customers, and I liked working for him a lot. I always listen when he talks, and if you have a chance too you should too.
vCloud Director 9.1 is now GA
You can see the what’s new guide here, and important to look at it as the release notes don’t cover off what is new. You can find the bits here. Anthony has a very nice article on this new release with lots of good info. Seems like this is an important release.
VMware Identity Manager Cloud is Now Available with VMware Horizon Cloud with Hosted Infrastructure
If you use the hosted Horizon world you can now use Identity Manager with your existing on-prem infrastructure which means you can use the same AD authentication in the cloud and on-prem. Nice. Find out more in this article. This is in fact pretty cool.
VMware Cloud Briefing Roundup - VMware Cloud on AWS and other updates
Anthony reviews the recent VMware announcements in this article. Some very cool stuff. If you missed that event Anthony reviews it well. BTW, here is the VMware Cloud on AWS roadmap and I think that is pretty cool.
Top vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) troubleshooting commands
A small but nice collection of CLI commands on the VCSA - good for troubleshooting and configuration. Good info.
Architecting a vSphere Upgrade
As we get closer to 5.5 being EOL it is more important to move to a new version of vSphere. And in this article it talks of the way to do it that is NOT willy-nilly and that is most excellent. Some very good points actually and I agree with all of them. Smart author.
VMware Capacity Reporting Part V: VVOls and UNMAP
Cody finishes off his series in this article and it is about UNMAP which is something more people should be aware of, and maybe exploiting too. Quite a bit of info it but interesting and useful. But then it all changes in VVols. Nice.
vSphere 6.5 DRS and Memory Balancing in Non-Overcommitted clusters
Frank has a very interesting article that I had to refer to recently and so enjoyed it. Good info, and quite useful to provide you with the background of why does the cluster memory look like that and nothing is vMotioned?
Extreme Performance Series: Performance Best Practices
A very nice video for anyone curious about performance best practices, including BIOS settings.
Installing VMware PowerCLI 10 on a Raspberry PI
This article will help you get PowerCLI on a Raspberry which is pretty amazing!
VCP6.5-DCV Study Guide - Free PDF Download
I recently did the VCP6.5 DCV test. It was harder for me than normal as I had no lab guide or study guide to study. And no books I could buy to use as as study guide. I did use some of the individual articles that Vladan had but now he has completed them all, and has turned it into a PDF. So if you need help studying for this test his guide can help. This and the exam guide - and lots of study and play in the lab - will get you through the test!
How to force an MSI package to install using Administrator Mode
This article was very useful - in my Win 10 desktop I can now right click on an MSI file and install as admin. Very handy and helpful.
vSphere Upgrade Saga: Linux VMware Software Manager (VSM)
Edward has updated this article - due to a major new release of the VSM software which has turned out really nice. I love this tool - and yes it does pull down the 9.1 vCD bits.
VMware Software Manager: The Good …. The Bad … The Alternative!
An interesting article about the VMware Software Manager and the problems with it, but also a very good alternative and you even get help making it work. Nice job!
vDeploy
In this article the author has a script(s) that will allow you to automate your VM provisioning. Basically via a form you make decisions and the result is running VMs. Pretty cool.
Add More (Red)Fish to your Diet
I had heard vaguely in the past of RedFish. I had also seen it in the SuperMicro gear, and had even upgraded it once or twice. But I did not know much about it. Then it was talked a lot about lately and I learned more. Then I saw this article. I remember in the past, when I was professional services, I would do a project at customer A, and it was all Compaq and firmware managed one way. Then next project, or even sometimes the same day, I would be with the one IBM customer I had to deal with. And firmware managed another way with different tools. Of course this was true with the iLO type interactions too. I had to use and support different tools. So I am a fan of RedFish and want more in my diet.
The Edge Compute, Cloud & Data Center Discussion Continues - Why it’s important?
A very good discussion of the edge and how useful and important it is. I think if you mostly think of corporate apps the edge is a little different - meaning maybe VPN and firewall gear, or maybe anti-malware too. But in IoT, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality the edge is something very different. Stretched somewhat and with more depth too. But an interesting article, and what a great picture too.
How to mind Ethereum with your MacBook and eGPU graphics adapters
You will not get rich on this. Only a few cents per month. But it is a good way to work through things and see what it is like. It is pretty interesting actually.
The Top 10 Best Antivirus Providers for Mac (2018) - DANGER
I saw this and thought it good to share in case people want to know more about anti-malware and rankings. But, I tested out the number 1 choice and it was terrible. Says free, and when it installed it scanned and found a bunch of problems and I had to buy to get it fixed. I hesitated and it went from 99 CAD to 39 to 19. About 2 minutes after download I had an email from my account manager. One of the emails suggested I need to register to get real time protection. So I do not like TotalAV, and I think them very misleading. Plus, since they were the top pick I am now suspicious of the whole list. I use Trend Micro on my Macs and think it does very well indeed. I will not share this list, or new lists from the same outfit again.
The Untimely Demise of Software Defined Storage?
A very interesting article with some very good thought behind it and as a result of that some good points in it. I should add that I had dinner once long ago with the author of it and he is interesting indeed to eat with.
Only half of ransomware payments honored
That is pretty scary news - you have all your important stuff encrypted and when you pay the ransom nothing happens. And that happens 50% of the times! So really worth having a plan and being ready to deal with this kind of situation.
1802 update to Project “Honolulu” Technical Preview is now available
See more about what is new in this article. I looked at the last public build and liked it and thought it was going in good directions.
Fixing the SSL Certificate with Project Honolulu
Jim helps with replacing the cert in this very interesting utility from Microsoft. I looked at this tool in the last public release and I liked it. However, I have a lot of Win2K8R2 servers and it did not look at them. Not sure if that will change in the new release.
Veeam Management Pack v8 Update 5 Now Available
In this review you can learn a little more about this most recent update to the Veeam Management Pack for SCOM. Lots of new stuff, and I love those morning coffee dashboards.
Veeam Vault #10: Latest Veeam Releases and Vanguard 2018 Update
Anthony has an article full of good info that covers off new products, and new releases but also links to Vanguard articles too.
Veeam Universal Storage API - Adding the Infinidat Plug-in
This is quite cool, the first delivery of integration that used our Universal Storage API. And since the Infinidat plug-in is ready it is being released. So if you want storage integration between Infinidat and Veeam you can learn how to make it all work with Michael in his article.
Using PowerShell with Veeam - remotely!
Someone was not able to work with PowerShell and Veeam remotely recently and so I shared with them this article I did to remind myself how to do it.
Backblaze and GDPR
In this article Backblaze talks about how GDPR is going to impact them, and their customers but it has some good info too. I am very fond of Backblaze and what they do for people. Great product and support.
Ravello Hardware Assisted Nested Virtualization and Bare-Metal Options for VMware VMs
An interesting, and detailed too, story of what is possible now with Ravello. Certainly big changes have happened. Ravello has come a long way.
Why Disaster Recovery Should Be an Integral Part of the Enterprise
An interesting article about the DR at VMware. Good info and some very good comments. Like how often they do real failovers for practice, and how when they had an event and things went wrong, their people were able to deal with them since they had practice. Here is the second article that talks the technical side.
How to find a lost iPhone even when it’s set to vibrate / silent
If you have ever used the very nice Find my iPhone app you likely used noise. If you want to learn how to find it when in silent mode check out this article.
How to opt out of Facebook data sharing
Some of you are likely users of Facebook and so this article will help you understand if you are sharing or not your info. Good stuff to check actually.
Orchestration from the top vs. Automation from the bottom
An interesting article and thoughts by Tom. Good reading.
Remove Stuck Entries from Programs and Features
This article was useful recently as I did have stuck entries in Programs.
Hansa down, this is cool: How Dutch cops snatched the wheel of dark web charabanc
This article is an interesting story of the police doing very good work at dealing with a dark web site.
Security has failed, analytics to the rescue
Gabe has an interesting article about something he has just learned about. And it is pretty interesting too. There is a video for more info too.
Thanks for reading or skimming this far,
Michael
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