Newsletter: September 29, 2018

Hello all,

I hope that this finds everyone well after a long week?  Was long for me, lots of work under way.  Setting up stuff in the lab to make it more realistic for testing, but also getting ready for another paper.  Lots of technology and automation in this paper.

I updated a few articles this week such as the one on macOS Mojave. We had some updates for the LinuxVSM so my article had to be updated and is good once again. It is a great tool! As well, I updated another great tool - Runecast, so my article is also updated and you can find it here. The update is pretty darn good - history view, and HTML5 integration with the vSphere Client.

Lets get started - lots to share!

Have a great week,

Michael

Important - FYI - problem with Dell FX2e firmware 2.1
I heard that the Dell FX2e firmware 2.10 will reboot even when it is not supposed to. This can happen as part of an iDRAC update which you will be sure there is no reboots. Dell support says it will have a fix in December. Thanks to Austin for this.

Nested ESXi on VMware Cloud on AWS (VMC)
William talks about Nested ESXi in this article. Nested vSphere is pretty darn handy and very useful. You can learn a lot more about this in Williams article.

vSphere 6.7 Security - media resources
I have shared this before, probably in May, but it has some very good info about security and you can learn from it nicely.  So if you need more knowledge about vSphere security check out this article.

vSphere 6.7 Update 1
I am quite excited about this particular release.  I think having a feature complete HTML5 client is nice, but I also love the new wizard for doing a cluster.  But in case you have not heard much about this release here is some good info on it.

vRealize Operations Manger 7.0 - updated release notes
In this article you can see much more about the new 7.0 of vROps, as it is updated release notes.

VMware Workstation 15 and Fusion 11 Major Releases
In this article you can learn about these new releases and they are pretty good! Here is another article but mostly about Fusion.

VMware Ports
You can use this site to figure out what ports your specific VMware product uses.  Handy and easy in fact, compared to looking through documentation.

Announcing VMware cloud Foundation 3.0 GA
You can learn more about this release in this article. I like how it now includes support for Ready Node hardware. It is quite the release and I find it interesting.

How to Filter and Forward Events from VMware Log Intelligence to Splunk and Other SIEM Services
In this article you can learn how to forward out from VMC to your Splunk or similar tools.

VMware Cloud on AWS, Making Cloud Accessible
Melissa covers off the history of VMC, and she covers it off pretty well.

How to properly load balance your backup infrastructure
In this article you can learn about how data flows in Veeam and how to load balance that flow. Very good background on the components of Veeam.

Automated Configuration of Backup & Replication with PowerShell
Anthony has an interesting article that has a number of very cool automation around setup of VBR, and even one I really like about resetting the config of VBR.

Quick Fix: Backing up vCenter Content Library Content with Veeam
Anthony shows you how to backup the contents of a Content Library in this article.  It does not backup the Content Library itself but the contents.  Another idea would be to have to Content Libraries and sync between them.

Veeam: How to create a Linux Backup repository in Veeam using our QNAP storage (no CIFS or iSCSI)
Jorge has a nice article about how you can have a linux repo in use and how handy is that?  And no windows physical cost or management cost.

Quick Fix: Specified vCloud Director is not supported when trying to add vCD 9.1 to Veeam ONE
Anthony has an article that will help you out if you have an issue adding vCD 9.1 to ONE.

Microsoft Learn
Recently Microsoft released a new learning tool, which I have heard some good things about.  It is primarily about using Azure which is not something I will do in the short term.  But like I said I have heard good things about it, so that means if you want to learn about Azure you have a tool to use.

Creating Bulk User and Groups in AD via Powershell
Michael has an interesting article about how to create large number of users and groups in AD.  Very handy for testing of a variety of things.

BackBlaze users who upgrade to Mojave ….
Should read this article soonest. The enhanced security and privacy controls means BackBlaze cannot do the full backup it should do.

HPE ML110 Gen10 Review
Tim reviews an interesting computer that sounds pretty good. I like how it includes iLO as part of the base unit.  And a good max on memory, and spare slots too.  The prices are pretty good too. Thanks Tim for a nice review!

Configuring Pure1 VM Analytics
Cody has an interesting article about some new functionality in the Pure cloud-based management / analytics / support tool that sounds pretty interesting.  The management and support capability that this provides to customers is serious.

Building a Universal vSphere Performance Monitoring Kit with PowerShell Core, InfluxDB, and Grafanon Ubuntu
This is an interesting article that can give you an power monitoring environment and one that you have built!

Bitdefender surprised me - in a very nice way
When I went to macOS Mojave on my spare MBA I had to remove the AV software and there was no upgrade yet for me.  I got updated software that worked with Mojave on the day that Mojave released.  So I was without for a month.  When I updated my production MBP, I was very surprised to find that my Bitdefender client was supported and no problem.  Turns out that Bitdefender clients have a policy applied against them that provides management.  By default update is enabled.  So as the main Bitdefender server (GravityZone appliance) gets updates it automatically updates.  So my client was update without me know and as a result it worked with Mojave.  Nice stuff Bitdefender!  Here is my article on main install, and one on polices and one on installing clients if you are curious.

Facebook Is Breached, Putting 50 million Users’ Data at Risk
I was never a fan of Facebook, and I am less of one now.  But, I know many people that use it so you need to be aware.  Here is an article about a new exposure.

Are you a WhatsApp user? I used to be.
Check out this article, and than think about not using WhatsApp.  That is what happened to me and I switched to Signal.

Want to be Valued?  Do Something Valuable
Grant has an interesting article about how to be valued as an employee.  Some good comments and good thinking too. I quite agree.

Microsoft starts rolling out Office 2019 for Windows and Mac
In this article you can learn quite a lot and not all of it good.  Seems like a strange release. Some users will get certain features and other users will not.  And it seems it will only get security updates.

Use your YubiKey to sign in to your 1Password account
I am a big fan, and have been for a long time, of 1Password.  I use it on my computers, iPads, and phone.  Really handy, and I quite like using my fingerprint to access it.  But if you don’t have the ability to use fingerprints, a YubiKey is a very good option, and it is supported by 1Password. And that YubiKey would be useful for other things too.

Inside iOS 12: There is No “I” in “Books”
In this article you can learn about the changed reading app in iOS / macOS. I like the app in iOS / macOS and I find it works good.  The changes don’t hurt.

iOS 12 Siri Shortcuts
Have you started to realize you should do something with Siri shortcuts?  See some interesting demo’s and than want to do your own?  Here is an excellent collection of articles that will help you be very good with shortcuts.

Thanks for reading or skimming this far,

Michael

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