Newsletter: July 6, 2019

Hello all,

First, I have to apologize for no newsletter last weekend.  It was a busy weekend in a fascinating place (Waterton) and I did not have much wireless so things did not get done. But that means you get some extra material this week!

I did a couple of VAO articles recently - one on using dynamic variables in the report templates, and one on improving failover speed. I also removed my traditional anti-virus from my lab, and house, and replaced it with some next gen stuff that seems to have a pretty good reputation.  Here is the article on installing it. I used vDocumentation recently to update my config info so I can confirm my article works with the latest of PowerCLI (11.2.0) and latest of vDocumentation (2.4.7). This is cool stuff and quite useful. I also got vCheck working - with all the new versions and so I checked out my article and it works good.

The VMworld US 2019 content catalog was opened recently and there is some good stuff in it! Here is an article on saving with training and certification while at VMworld. There are some changes at VMworld this year and you may find this How-to guide helpful.

BTW, I heard someone say that Alexander Graham Bell who invented the telephone was an American.  But that is not the whole truth.  He was Canadian and living in Canada when he invented the telephone, but patented it in the US, and he also moved to the US at that time.  If you want to know more facts around this check out this article.

Have a great week!

Michael

VMware vCenter 6.5 U3 Now GA
You can find out the vCenter detail in the release notes, or the ESXi release notes, and the bits. Some very interesting improvements in the audit info in vC, and lots of updates in ESXi too.

Quick Post: vSphere 6.7 - Sporadic VM Resets by vSphere HA
This article has an interesting problem - not solved yet, that happens after an upgrade from 6.5 to 6.7.  Very good info.

vSphere Native Drivers
Currently there is both native drivers and VMKlinux drivers in ESXi.  But in the near future I suspect there will only be allowed native drivers - which is good for stability and performance so that is good for us.  But it might cause some troubles.  I checked all four of my hosts and there was only native drivers so that is very good.  You can learn more, and how to check in this article.

Nested ESXi Virtual Appliance
William has updated his repo of nested ESXi for 6.5 U3 already.  See the details in this article. Nested is not supported for production but it is very handy stuff for so many reasons.

Multi-cluster Upgrading Strategies for vSAN
Pete has another article that is first rate learning about patching in a vSAN world.  Great info that anyone doing patching in vSphere should know.

Unable to query vSphere health information. Check vSphere Client logs for details
Duncan talks about an issue and how to deal with it.  I quite like the vSphere Health widget.

Plugin Management UI in the vSphere Client 6.7 Update 2
In this article you can learn more about plug-ins and how troubleshooting has changed.

The NUC killer: SuperMicro SuperServer E300-8D
This interesting article is very informative and interesting.  I like seeing all the choices and how the author went one way or the other.  Some very nice servers he ended up with.

VMware ESXi SATADOM Boot Device
I have not worked with SATADOM before, but I see a value for them, and it sure helps boot time a lot.  They are more dependable than most SD or USB devices too.  So it was nice to see this article to see how to get one and make it work.

Introduction to Edge Clusters in VMware Cloud Director 9.7
This article has some good learning about an important feature in vCD. It seems like vCD 9.7 is pretty interesting!

Global Load Balancing with VMware Horizon and Amazon Route 53
Sean has an interesting article about load balanced desktops. Very cool stuff.

Horizon View 7.9 now GA
You can see the release notes for details.  In this video you can learn more about this release. The 5.1 clients are out too. However, I have not upgraded yet, as I have heard of some bugs around Blast which is important to me so I don’t want any fuss so I will wait.

Notes from the field: UEM / vIDM Integration caveats
This article talks about some issues that were found during work in the field, and how to avoid the issues.

The VMware Labs Flings monthly for June 2019
You can get an overview of new flings in this article.  I sure like the sound of the vSphere Mobile Client.

PowerCLI Cookbook for VMware vSAN
This resource has been recently updated and it is very powerful and useful. If you do PowerCLI and have vSAN you will find it pretty cool,

Carbon Black
Thanks to James Muller from Carbon Black I got a video intro to Carbon Black Defense as well as its integration with App Defense.  Pretty darn impressive.  I remember in my past as an PSO guy how hard it was to do security stuff for customers, and I sure wish I had tools like these back then. Very cool stuff!

Using Windows FSRM to build a Killswitch for Ransomware
Thanks to Anton in his weekly forum newsletter I saw this article which is pretty interesting and I think it is worthy of a test and it may be a good part of your defense in depth strategy if it works.

AWS Transit VPC
Some very good learning on AWS in this article.  Good reading.

VMware Cloud on AWS: May 2019 Digest
This article is a digest of the recent technical articles and is very interesting.

Configuration Maximums for VMware on AWS
You can find the config max info for VMC in this article.

How to create a Failover Cluster in Windows Server 2019
Hannes has an interesting article of doing a failover cluster - which is something I have not done for a very long time!  Interesting read and it would be very helpful if you want to do a cluster.

5 pro tips for recovering applications quickly and reliably
Sam has a good article that is very good for VAO users to help them do the fastest possible failovers.

Dude, where is my Veeam Free Edition?
Michael clears up this oddness in the article. There is no more free edition, but there is something else that is free!

New era of Intelligent Diagnostics
Melissa has an interesting article about a new feature in Veeam that will warn you of issues before you experience them. This is the start of some very cool stuff.

Monitoring Veeam Backup & Replication with Splunk - Part 1 and Part 2
You can find part 1, and part 2 on this, and this is good info if you use Splunk and Veeam. Of course I am sticking with Log Insight.

Veeam Direct Restore from AWS EC2 Backup & Replication Server and Repository
Michael has an article that talks about an interesting restore story.

A better way to backup with Veeam and IntelliFlash arrays
In this article you can learn about a new Veeam Plug-in that works with Western Digital InteliFlash arrays.  This is a big deal and very useful for customers.

First Look: On Demand Recovery with Cloud Tier and VMware Cloud on AWS
Anthony has a nice article about new functionality in Veeam Backup & Replication and the cloud tier.  Good details.

Kubernetes Everywhere…. Time to take off the blinkers!
Anthony has an interesting article about Kubernetes.  It mentions he should have looked into them sooner.  I am not sure about that.  It is interesting stuff, and so that makes it fun to learn, but not so many customers - based on who I visit and talk to - are going in deep on K8’s yet.

First-lock: Automated K8s lifecycle with ClusterAPI
This article shows off some smart stuff on automation and making your life easier in the K8s world.

Kubernetes on vSphere 101 - Services
I liked this article that Cormac did.  Quite informative.

How to Learn Python for Data Science the Right Way
You can learn about Python as it applies to data science via this article. I have heard from a Python guy that learning it to code computer stuff is way different than working with data so this is the best way to learn Python if you are not going to do the computer stuff.

5 Cyber Threats you Should be Aware of
This article covers off a number of different security things to be aware of. Times are much worse than they used to be, and protecting your company is so much more important than it used to be.

How to take the pain of patching Linux and Windows systems at scale
Thanks to Bob Plankers for sharing this interesting article. If you are a Puppet shop you have some cool stuff in that article.

Linux Notes: Extending a File System in a Virtual Disk
Edward does a nice job of explaining how to do this.  Good info. I love how a number of the VMware Linux based appliances does this sort of thing automatically.

The Pure Storage Plugin for the HTML5 vSphere Client
Cody talks about the new HTML5 client plug-in that looks pretty darn good.  It looks great.

Windows Terminal is here in its Multi-Tabbed Console Glory
This sounds very interesting and useful.  My Win 10 desktop is not at the level yet that I could get this utility.  But it is impressive.

ONEDRIVE: A lot more than simply a place to store your files
If you are new to ONE drive, or what to learn more this article will help.

BlueKeep Warnings pay off, Boot Patching in Enterprise networks
Yes, patching is so important!  It is now part of your defense in depth. This article talks about this subject and BlueKeep.

Getting a grip on privacy and security
Ray has an interesting article on security and privacy that is quite interesting.

Raspberry Pi 4 on sale
You can find out a bit more on this new Raspberry and buy one if you want in this article. Quite an upgrade.

Use Sonos and Apple Watch? Lyd is your remote
I am fond of both Sonos and Apple watch so it was interesting to see this article that provides you with a remote for Sonos that runs on your watch!

Pages, Numbers, and Keynote productivity apps for iOS and macOS get major update
Yes, in fact it is true, major updates indeed.  Find out the details in this article.

Best productivity apps for iPad in 2019
This article has some good apps that might be useful for you. I am familiar with and think highly of Fantastical, and PCalc.

Our favorite hidden features in iOS13
I am using iPadOS13 and quite like it.  This article talks of some interesting stuff in iOS13 that is a little less known.

New features in latest macOS Catalina
This article will share some info on Catalina and some ideas on upgrades.

How to use Sidecar with older Macs in macOS Catalina and iPadOS 13
I find it very handy when in a hotel room, or a restaurant to be able to use my iPad as a second monitor for my laptop.  I have used two different tools for that, and they worked most of the time OK.  Having it in the OS is a nice and you can learn about it in this article. That article will help you make things work in unsupported Macs.

How Apple’s New Find My Service locates Missing hardware that’s offline
I have had a few people ask me about this when they see me using the new Find My server and I mention it. So this article will explain how a device that is not on Wifi can be sort of found. This is cool stuff.

Everything we know about Apple Card: Rewards, design, approval odds, more
This is likely not going to be in Canada too quick, but it will be available soon to the US.  I think it will be good for many people and help with security and possible be cheaper if you pay your bill off each month.  But check out the full story here.

Soapbox - Even Mac users need anti-virus!
Today I heard three public technical people say no need for anti-virus on Macs.  That is crap.  You could get an email with malware in it and forward it to someone else where it executes that you would not know about, but yet if you had anti-virus it might be stopped.  I have used Trend, Sophos, and Cylance with no issues.  Trend and Sophos for years in fact.  No issues.  I know people that use MalwareBytes with no issues. Trend is a little bit expensive but quite good, Sophos is free and quite good, and Cylance is very reasonable priced and is not truly a pure anti-virus product but rather a security product that watches for bad behavior.

Thanks for reading or skimming this far,

Michael