Hello all,
I hope everyone had a great week? And by now you should be ready for Christmas.
I had a number of comments lately on my iPad usage so I wrote an article about it.
I wish everyone Happy Holidays, and the very best wishes for 2020. Also, thank you very much for reading my blog, and the comments. Much appreciated.
I have been lucky to find a lot of interesting articles to share this week.
Have a great week!
Michael
vRealize Automation 8.0.1 now GA
This release - as seen in the release notes - has a bunch of fixes but still quite a list of known issues. I like the theory of vRA 8, but I think it needs more work before I can upgrade my work lab. BTW, the migration assessment tool has been updated (release notes). It only does an assessment of your existing environment and does not do an upgrade for you or a migration for you.
vRealize Operations Manager 8.0.1 now GA
This update is out quickish after the 8.0 release and that is good. The release notes show a nice list of fixes, including things I thought I would have found! It also fixes some upgrade issues if you have not upgraded yet.
Configuring vROps Access for an Application Team
This video will help you with enabling access for a group of people to vROps. Handy info.
Dell EMC Storage Analytics for vROps
In this article you can learn more about the Dell EMC plug-in for vROps and what it looks like. It is something that is also free now which I did not know. So if you have Dell EMC storage and vROps you should definitely get this free MP as it will be very helpful.
vRealize Orchestrator 8.0.1 now GA
This update is fairly quick after the 8.0 GA so that is good. Here is the release notes but there seems to be quite a few fixes in this 8.0.1 release.
Design and Operational Considerations When using vSAN Fault Domains
Pete has an interesting and education article about fault domains and how to exploit them in vSAN. Great info if you work with vSAN!
Listing all Events for vCenter Server
William has an interesting article on events in vCenter that will be helpful in a few ways - particularly if you are using the Event Broker. I think something important that William said bears repeating - each vCenter might have a slightly different list of events due to different things, such as what plug-ins you have had installed. So use the PowerCLI to get your own list.
VMware PowerCLI 11 Storage Module Reference Poster for vSAN
Jase has done an interesting poster if you have vSAN and like PowerCLI. It will be quite helpful! I do like the posters that come out of VMware.
Can I still provision VMs when a vSAN Stretched Cluster has failed: part 2
Duncan has a nice article that has some very good info that is worth knowing if you or your customers use a vSAN stretched cluster.
“Latest Updates already installed on vCSA”
I had this issue lately on a co-workers vSphere 6.5 vCSA and it was quite frustrating. But, Kev Johnson was a big help and shared this article, which the attached script fixed the issue. Much appreciate the help Kev!
Automating Upgrade of VMware Tools and VM Compatibility
This article will help you understand order of operations and how to upgrade in an automated fashion. Some nice PowerShell examples too!
Real time VMware datastore performance monitoring using PowerShell
This article will help you to monitor datastore performance using PowerShell. I think pretty cool and the script is already done for you!
Now available! vSphere Upgrade: The Inside Track
In this article you can get access to seven videos on upgrading to 6.7. The video are similar to the vSphere Upgrade workshops that were done. Some great info in these videos so if you have not upgrade yet you should check them out as it will help you upgrade better!
The beginning of the end of 2019: Finishing the Decade with vSphere
Bob has an interesting article with links to some great articles. Plus hints of what is to come!
VMware OS Optimization tool now supports Windows Server 2019
This tool is quite useful for customizing Windows VM’s before you turn them into templates. I like how it can turn off things! It has been updated to support additional functionality such as Win2K19.
Copy VMware VMs between ESXi hosts using the OVF tool
This article talks about an interesting and useful method to move a VM between hosts when there is no vCenter to help. Good info to have handy in case it is necessary one day.
vSphere SSO Domain Repointing Lightboard Videos
You can learn more on this subject in this article. Nigel will educate you on what you need.
How to troubleshoot with vRealize Log Insight
Here is a video on using Log Insight to help troubleshoot issues. Good basic intro to using Log Insight. I think Log Insight is a great tool, and more people should know more about using it.
Using Host Groups with Availability Zones in Enterprise PKS
Cormac talks about this in this article, but it sounds like a great idea. I think using host groups and AZ is perfectly logical and so I am quite happy that Cormac thought of it and explored it in this aricle!
How Zero Trust Security with Workspace ONE Solves three key cybersecurity challenges
This article talks about how Workspace ONE can provide you with an integrated Zero Trust model and I think that is key to a layered defense in depth model that will best protect companies.
Introducing VMware AVA as part of Workspace ONE Intelligent Hub
This article is interesting and a bit of a surprise to me. AVA provides a virtual assistant to Workspace ONE users. This assistant will not provide dinner but it will do a lot of work related stuff and much easier than in the previous model.
Changing the amount of desktops or RDS hosts in a pool / farm
This article will help you more easily change the number of desktops or RDS hosts in a pool / farm which is nice as it has been a bit difficult in the UI.
ControlUp 8.1 Preview: Advanced Horizon Capabilities
This is good news, in this article you can learn how ControlUp now can work with Horizon. This level of integration is pretty cool and I think it quite useful to help with monitoring properly.
Integrating Microsoft Azure MFA with VMware UAG 3.8
Sean has the full scope on making this all work in this article. Sean is one of the amazing VDI guys around and always you can learn from him!
How to make up for Kubernetes’ Disaster Recovery Shortfalls
It is true that DR orchestration tools like SRM or VAO do not really protect K8’s but in this article you can learn about what is possible.
5 key encryption lessons from the field
Falko has an interesting article on using encryption with Veeam backups. He has background info that is also useful to know. I would add if you are encrypting your backups, and your network traffic, you should think about encrypting your VMs. Nice job Falko!
VeeamON Virtual Conference Recording Announcements
In this article you can find links to most of the sessions or keynotes of the VeeamON Virtual Conference.
AIEngine - AI-driven Network Intrusion Detection System
Fascinating article on a pretty good idea for an IDS. I like the idea of AI crunching data and watching the data for intrusions. I think that this is a good backup for traditional IDS.
Sovlabs Plugin 2019.24.0 Release Notes
I really like the Sovlabs plugin for vRA and the number of things that can be integrated with it is amazing - like Veeam Backup & Replication for example. This plugin is ONLY for vRA v7.x. Here is the release notes.
AWS Redshift: Lessons Everyone is about to learn
This article is about how some interesting changes are going to occur in AWS. the idea is cheap storage with S3, but connect with high speed compute when required. Very interesting stuff.
The Top 10 Open Source Blogs of 2019
In this article you can see what the VMware Open Source team thinks is the top 10 blogs of 2019. Interesting stuff actually.
We executed a Disaster Plan for our VDI!
In this article Andre talks about, and has a demo video, about failing a VDI install over in a practice DR event. Very cool as it is hard to do a DR failover of a VDI environment.
Backups - Feasibility vs. Requirements
Andre has an interesting article about the feasibility and requirements of backups in the Datrium world. He looks at it really well, and it does in fact highlight some cool functionality of Datrium. It is important to note that the thought process is good on any level for other apps too.
VMware Turtles
When I worked at VMware I spent a lot of time in the Palo Alto campus, and so I got to know the turtles and quite liked to see them when I walked by. So it was cool to see this article on the turtles that Nigel has done.
Veeam ONE Visio
I am always surprised how many people do not know that Veeam ONE can do a Visio of your infrastructure. So it is nice to share this article that shows you how!
How to migrate backup data to Object Repository
With Veeam Backup for Office 365 now have a new repo - Object Store it is good to know how to move data to that new repo and you can find out how in this article.
DevOps Automation with Terraform & VMware
You can get a free ebook on this subject at this link. I know a number of people that really push Terraform so this book will do that too.
10 VMware Interview Questions (and answers)
This article has 10 good questions with background details and answers! Very handy but also quite interesting for me to read through.
TipBits: Replace a Shared Dropbox File without Changing its link
This is something I always wanted to know how to do - update a file that I had already shared out the link to. And now this article explains how to do it.
iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro Tricks: 16 ways to move faster
Some good suggestions in this list if you are new to an iPhone 11.
2019: The year in Pictures
CNN has an article with the year in pictures. The pictures are interesting, and moving too.
Thanks for reading or skimming this far,
Michael
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