Hello all,
Another nice week, but so good it is a weekend. Hope things are well with all of you? I am not sure if I will be at VMworld or not. Will be the first that I miss in a long while. I will try and report on the cool stuff from here.
I did a quick article on something I have had to talk about with a lot of customers. All the other things you can do with BCDR orchestration software - other than the DR orchestration itself. I also did a minor update in my article at using vSphere tags at scale.
I used a new app, called Vignette to go through my contacts, and then for each one look on the Internet in places like Gravitar and Twitter to find pictures. Then it showed me the current picture if there was one for each contact and the new one. Then I let it update and it worked great. I like to have pictures so I can remember more easily who is who, but also when they call and I see a picture that is more helpful for me than a name sometimes.
I learned about the Lego Lunar Lander from William Lam, I got it and built it last weekend. It was a fun build with lots of detail and it turns out really well. Nice bit of history too, but also fun to build. So thanks William!
But lets get started as I have a range of things to share today. In fact this is a bigger newsletter than normal. Not sure what happened.
Have a great week,
Michael
New Release: VMware PowerCLI 11.3.0
You can learn about this new update of PowerCLI in this article. Some good stuff in it and I love how easy the update is (update-module).
Yes, We Use It Ourselves!!
This article is about how VMware uses VMware Code Stream to make software and how it worked so well they turned it into a product to help others.
vSphere Compliance: Common Criteria, NIST 800-53, and DISA STIG
Bob has a very interesting article that talks about a variety of security and compliance related things. Great info that is also useful too.
Top 25 VMworld US 2019 sessions to attend (or watch online)
First I need to say I am very happy that we can watch these sessions! Duncan has a very good list of sessions. I know of a few of the speakers and they are very good indeed.
Top 20 articles for vSphere May 2019
Some useful articles in the top 20 list this month. I try and look at this list each month to get an idea of what is going on so that I might be proactive in things.
A primer on First Class Disks / Improved Virtual Disks
Cormac has a really good article on something that is new in vSphere and likely something not a lot of us know much about. Interesting stuff.
Notes from the field: VMware vCenter /dev/mapper/core_vg-core full
This article talks nicely about a problem, and the solution and an alternative solution too.
SPBM Policy Exception Cases
John has an article about exceptions in the SPBM policy. Short and easy to read but also interesting too.
vSAN Capacity Management and Monitoring Par 1
Jeff has an interesting article that is the start of a series. If you have vSAN it will be good learning for you. I wish I had vSAN in my lab!
Building a Secure Data Center that you can carry in a backpack with vSphere 6.7
An interesting article about a battlefield computer that fits in a backpack and is properly secure too. I have been told they use vSAN as the shared storage and they build the SDDC in the backpack using PowerCLI.
Cross vCenter Migration and Clone requirements in vSphere 6.0 and later
This KB article explains the requirements and it was very recently updated.
How a Zero-Trust Environment Can Help Defend Against BlueKeep
Learn more about AppDefense and an interesting exploit and how zero trust is very usefull!
Using Amazon RDS with Horizon 7 on VMware Cloud on AWS
Sean has an interesting article about integrating RDS with Horizon. Pretty cool if you are hosting Horizon on VMC.
Become a Horizon hero
You can find a lot of resources to learn more about Horizon at this URL.
Announcing S3-Compatible Object Storage for VMware Cloud Providers
When this was announced I saw a number of cloud guys very excited! I see the value for service providers.
Automating HCX Add On for VMware Cloud on AWS
William talks of how you can do some additional automation in your VMC work.
VMware Cloud on AWS release notes
You can find the release notes, and there is a new release on the 19th that seems to be a useful fix release.
Runecast Analyzer: Now with Automated HCL checks in Public beta
In this article you can learn more about the new HCL checks in Runecast which is very cool. This tool continues to improve and I like it so much. If you want to get it working so you can check it out you can use this article to help.
Quick Fix: Unable to login to WordPress site
Anthony had a problem, a frustrating one in fact, and he describes it in this article and how to deal with it too.
Step-by-Step: Migrating the AD Certificate Service from Win2K8 R2 to Win2K19
This article is quite helpful since I thought it was only a backup and restore thing!
Using Dynamic Elements with vRealize Automation Component Profiles
This article will be quite helpful to more experienced vRA people.
Everything you need to know about Libra, Facebook’s ambitious cryptocurrency
This article is not everything you need to know but it is a start. I do not trust FB, so I will not trust it’s cryptocurrency.
Windows Server 2019 support, expect no less from us!
Rick has an article about Windows 2019 and Veeam that is good to see. Glad that it is supported. He also has a link to the Microsoft What’s New doc which is pretty interesting. I like the sound of the Storage Migration Service.
NetApp June Launch 2019
Michael has an article about what he saw and learned at an NetApp event he attended recently. Some interesting stuff actually.
Veeam: How to deploy Dell EMC ECS Community Edition to have object storage on-prem
I shared this article out a while back, but I heard of interest lately for people to test Cloud capacity stuff in Veeam and this will help you do that! Thanks Jorge, BTW for the English version.
Which Infrastructure Monitoring Tools are right for you? On-Premises vs. SAAS
An interesting article with some good things to think about when you are choosing monitoring tools.
Datadog part 1: Who let the dogs out?
This article is all about doing monitoring with a different tool - Datadog. I have visited customers - at least one or two that use this tool and are very happy with it.
Fraudulent domains are remaining active for longer
This article talks about an issue that is important for security professionals to think about and be aware of.
Data, Surveillance, and the AI Arms Race
Very interesting article on the AI arms race and good learning too. Someone recently did not believe me when I mentioned the level of monitoring in China. This might help them understand my point.
Dark Mode Isn’t ‘Easier on the Eyes’ for Everybody
This article surprised me at first but it is interesting, and I guess that it makes sense that dark mode is not for everyone. It is nice to have the option though.
iPadOS 13: How to use a mouse with your iPad
This is something that I have always wanted - mouse support on my iPad. Now you can with the next major release and you can learn how in this article.
Safari on iPadOS is LIving Up to the Hype
This article talks about how the iPadOS 13 updated Safari is working or not. iOS and iPadOS 13 are big releases.
Hands-on with iPad and iOS 13: Changes Big and Small
This article is by someone who has been working with iPadOS and has some good info. It is a big release and it is likely good to think about it a bit now before it shows up.
How ‘Sign In With Apple’ works in iOS 13, iPadOS 13, and macOS Catalina
This is an important new feature and I think many people should use it, and so it is good to see a little more about it.
The best tips and tricks for getting the most out of your HomePod
I wrote an article about what I learn about using my HomePod, but in this article there is some good stuff!
11 little-known iPhone features you should start using
This article has some nice suggestions for features that might be useful for you and perhaps you may not know of them. Definitely some good ones!
Spotlight - Don’t take your Mac’s powerful search engine for granted
I am embarrassed to say that I only use the search to find a file. It can do so much more - see what in this article.
The new iPadOS Feature is Easy to Miss, but it’s a Killer Productivity Tool
This is very interesting technology and I look forward to play with it when iPadOS 13 ships.
Baltimore’s bill for ransomware: Over $18 million, so far
This article should motivate everyone to do better security, which means educating your users, improved firewall and IDS policies and config, and improved security at the desktop and server OS. Defense in depth is the key.
Thanks for reading or skimming this far,
Michael
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