Newsletter: July 28, 2018

Hi there,

A busy week in the lab, and it was not all fun.  I am working on one problem in the lab that is most frustrating.  I hope to have some help with it next week and get if figured out.

I did get my vSphere 6.7 upgrade done, and so my article talks about it, and even the solution to the issue I experienced as well. I also updated my document your vSphere hosts article, and what a useful tool vDocumentation is. I also updated my HomePod article with more stuff I learned.  I love being able to say Hey Siri, hush. This week I also updated my storage arrays, and the management software.  I really like the Nexenta software.

VMworld US 2018 - I will be around at VMworld. Don’t hesitate to reach out if you want to talk about BCDR, or about VAO. Probably best to reach out via Twitter (@mwVme).  I will also be at our booth sometimes, and also at the VMunderground event too. If you have not been to VMworld this article may be helpful! If you are interested in VMware on VMC sessions - and I am - you can check out this list of them.

Are you using vSphere 6.7 yet?  If so can you take a few minutes and do the survey?  Will be helpful to VMware.

But, as you might expect, i have things to share so lets do that.

Michael

vCenter Server 6.7.0c now GA
It looks like this dropped today.  I have updated my lab and I do like the easy upgrade for the VCSA. This is a small release but it does have a few fixes in it. Find out all the details in the release notes.

Creating a vSphere Content Library directly on Amazon S3
In this very cool article you can learn how you can have a Content Library in S3 which a variety of SDDCs can access and no ingress / egress charges.  As always very cool info from William.  If you are working in VMC this can definitely help.

Automating VM Template management using Content Library in VMC
William talks about a new feature in the Content Library that has surfaced in VMC and hopefully we will see soon as well.  This new feature is done really well.

Automation with the VMware Cloud Services Portal (CSP)
William has some great info on using the API in VMC and how to start.  Really good info if you want to do some advanced API related stuff

Could not add an NFS volume back to the cluster
I deleted a NFS volume recently and went to add it back.  And on two hosts I could and two I could not.  This article showed up in a Google search.  Important to note, I only use step 3 to fix my issue.  None of the other stuff.  Worked good. In hindsight, I should not be surprised about this as it was not an easy removal, and I guess on two hosts it was really not smooth.

Backing up Virtual Volumes (VVols)
Pete has an article that talks about backup in the VVols space.  Good to know as I do see VVols getting more popular and for good reasons. Veeam is on the list, and I should mention I like how when we restore you get the same storage policy the VM was backed up under, but also, you can change it during the restore if necessary.  I mention this as I have had to do that a few times in testing and it is nice.

Build numbers and Versions of vSAN
I had to use the KB article to see what the vSphere was for the VSAN version that people were talking about. So that article is pretty handy.

Understanding vSAN Encryption - “Erase disks before use”
Jase has an excellent article about when to use this option and it is good to know.  For example, vSAN encryption only encrypts new data when it is enabled.  So existing data would be not encrypted and that could be bad.  Good info in this article so worth checking out if you do vSAN Encryption.

Shutting down vSAN when vCenter is part of the vSAN storage
This KB article can help you power off a vSAN environment safely when there is vC on the vSAN.

Space Reclamation / UNMAP
If you want to learn more about UNMAP you can do that via this article, and thanks to Cody!

Creating an Optimized Windows image for a VMware Horizon Virtual Desktop
This article has a lot of good and detailed info on doing images for VDI.  They are more sophisticated than what I do, but it is  just what you need when you have a large and dynamic environment.

Share your vRealize Operations Dashboards on VMware {code} Sample Exchange
This is a nice idea, as I have some some very nice dashboards out in the world and I think they could help other people too.  I am so happy that you can export / import now.  I pushed hard for that long ago.

Protecting 365 - a look at Veeam Backup for Office 365
In this article you learn more about Office 365 backups and some good ideas around it.  You also learn more about the Veeam offering for backing up Office 365.  Good things to think about.

SaaS Backup - Veeam Backup for Office 365 v2 GA
Michael talks about the new release of Veeam Backup for Office 365 (VBO).  There is some great new features in this version and I think customers will be quite happy.

#1Hyper-Availability for Nutanix Enterprise Cloud
What a title.  Yes, we did release a product that can backup AHV in Nutanix. Find out more in Michael’s article.  I know some of the guys who worked on it, smart and hard working dev guys.  I think you will like the result.

Veeam: Best Practices for Veeam Gateway Server and how to configure it correctly in multi-datacenter environments
Jorge has an interesting article about something that I think many do not think about.  The Gateway server is something that you may not think about, but can be quite handy in specific circumstances where thinking about it becomes worthwhile.

What is the Veeam WAN accelerator and how does it work?
I know several people that will enjoy this article as it is good info on the WAN accelerator and gives some good info on making it work.

Success Story - Veeam and vSAN
In this brochure you can learn about how a school is successful with vSAN and Veeam working together. This can be quite successful for you to use with customers that like to see reference kind of things.

Manage Windows 10 connection endpoints
In this article you can learn all about what in the Win10 OS reaches outside the OS and why.  And what you might do about it is not hard either. Very interesting learning. A lot of stuff which can be turned off for the typical enterprise user.

Cloud vs. On-Premises - Hard dollar costs
This article talks about whatIi have heard people ask for in the past.  They wanted to see a comparison between cloud and on-prem but with real numbers that were believable.  So it looks like we have that now.  This is only a guideline as there are other variables that can greatly impact the cloud cost but it is a very good guideline though.

Taking the EZ-Pass Lane to a Hybrid Storage Cloud
Nexenta has something pretty interesting and I hope to try it out one day.  They have a button in their UI that will connect your local storage to the cloud.  See this article for more info.

File Services for HCI and Block Storage Simplified
Michael has an article that is quite interesting and it looks like doing Nexenta just got a lot easier. You can deploy an OVA and end up with a storage array pretty easy and quick.

What is Datrium DVX?
One of the new guys on the Datrium team has written his first article and it is about DVX.  If you want to learn more about Datrium it is a good start.

VMworld 2018 Royale with Datrium.  How to win FREE VMworld pass, Get your vEXpert Gift, and win many prizes!!
Andre has the info in this article all about Datrium and VMworld.  Lot of info and nice to see some nice prizes too.It sounds like a wonderful vExpert gift that I am looking forward too!

Who is Heptio?
I had no idea who Heptio was, but I know someone who has gone there, and so it was good to see this article so I know what they are. Another company connected to Kubernetes.

Disaster Recovery vs Disaster Avoidance vs Data Protection
In this interesting article it talks of a number of things I have seen people confused about in the past.  So good info to help with learning more about the BCDR space.

Microsoft SQL Server Licensing Considerations and Configuration using VMware Cloud on AWS
SQL licensing has gotten complicated in the last while, and when used in the cloud that can simplify it, or not.  This article covers that off in detail.

Expanding Drive C: in Windows 2016 - not
I learned this recently and it was a surprise.  I stopped putting programs and data on drive D: long ago when I learned how I could use VMware to expand drive C and use Windows to extend to use the new space.  So everything went on drive C:.  However, this does not work with Win2K16 any longer since they put an emergency partition right beside drive C: so it cannot easily be expanded.  So I am back now with my most recent application install with a D: and all the programs and data on it.

If you have mastered PowerShell, you don’t need these 3rd Party Tools anymore
I thought this was an interesting article in that it surprised me what could be done with PowerShell.

Hard Drive Stats for Q2 2018
I love looking at these articles BackBlaze does about hard drive stats.  They have even influenced my own purchases in my home lab.  So it was interesting to see the latest one with the very new drives - like the 14 TB one from Toshiba. I have mentioned it before, but I do recommend BackBlaze for the cloud component of your protection strategy at home.

AutoLab 3.0 released
This sounds like a very big release and I know how many people it helps so it is good to see.

Linux Load Averages: Solving the Mystery
A bit different article but I have wondered at some of those numbers in Linux.

Tintri rescued by DDN just hours after filing for Chapter 11
I have talked with several people that did not know this, so I thought i would be good to share out this article that is in fact a little old. I looked at the Tintri site and it seems business as usual.  And even suggests they will be at VMworld.

Knative + Riff + Google + Pivotal - PFS - what’s this all about?
An interesting article that Chad has done, with lots of reading and even homework too.  But good learning.

Tests confirm Apple’s Throttling Fix improves performance for 2018 MacBook Pro Models
In this article it shows how the recent fix from Apple really does fix the issue with processor throttling. Lots of testing was done and some quite interesting.

How to make Skype, FaceTime, or Hangouts video look great
You can get a little bit of help in this article with making your video look better.  Sort of handy considering how much video we do.

How to make and answer phone calls on your Mac
This article will help you with dealing with phone calls when you are on your Mac.  It is quite handy. When I am working in my home office and my cellphone rings, I can answer it on my Mac, or my iPad, or my iPhone.  Handy.

What APFS does for you, and what you can do with APFS
I am most impressed that Apple was able to change the file system on a zillion iOS devices with no one I know having an issue.  Then the same thing happen on the Mac.  I guess all the work on making it work for the iOS devices helped on the Mac too.  But to learn more abut this file system check out this article.  Why am I sharing this - other then to help people learn that is?   Someone looked over my shoulder while I was doing an image backup.  And so they saw my utility (SuperDuper) mention APFS and they were curious so I figure others might be too.

Hunting for Bad Apples - Part 2
This article talks in depth about how you can hunt for activity resulting from bad guys.  Interesting stuff - and not just the hunt side but also about the Mac too.

4K HDR Movies that are worth upgrading for, including Ready Player One, and Black Panther
In this article you can get a good idea on movies in 4K HDR that are worth seeing (and some not).

11 Warning signs of Gaslighting
I saw this article and checked it out as I have heard of Gaslighting but did not know much about it.  It is good info to know as I see that this is something that is happening in the world around us.

Thanks for reading or skimming this far,

Michael

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