Newsletter: August 15, 2020

Hello all,

I trust this finds everyone safe and good?  Our pandemic is not over yet, and I see in a few places in the world it is getting worse. But in six months or maybe more we should have vaccines that will help even more. My wife and I stay home or stay isolated if not at home to try and avoid any issues. We are quite worried what will happen in Winter when everyone will spend even more time together.

BTW, I know some of have been asking about my doing a Windows 2019 template outline.  But I have no lab so I will not be able to do that. I apologize and quite frankly, I wish I could.

I have an interesting range of article so as always I hope something for everyone.

Have a great week,

Michael

Snapdragon chip flaws put >1 billion Android phones at risk of data theft
This is quite an issue but you can learn more about it in this article.

vSphere Performance with Intel Optane Persistent Memory in Memory Mode - Balanced Profile
It is cool when you learn about configuration changes that can help performance and that is what this article is about. If you have Intel Optane in your hosts, that is.

DRS in vSphere 6.x and vSphere 7
This article breaks down the differences between the two releases in the DRS space.

Collecting & Replaying Data with esxtop Batch Mode and VisualEsxtop
Matt has an article about working with esxtop in batch mode that I think is pretty good.  I am often surprised - when I used to visit VMware customers a lot, how few know of esxtop or esxtop batch mode.

Which Intel NUC should I buy for VMware ESXi (August 2020)
This article can help you answer that question.

Other Intel and AMD small form factor (SFF) systems for vSphere Homelabs
William has a great article on the different small form factor systems that would be great for homelabs. A really nice range of Intel and AMD systems.

Enable SSH on vCenter Server 7
This article will help you with SSH and vCenter. Although I suspect most of my readers already know how.  But this article could be shared with a customer who doesn’t know how - maybe.

The Evolution of VMware Horizon for Hybrid and Multi-Cloud Deployments of Virtual Desktops and Applications
Wow, what a title for this article when it is actually about Horizon 8 that is now GA. I wish I had a lab to document the upgrade and check out this new version that sounds exciting.

Horizon 8.0 Series
Sean is doing an interesting series on 8.0.  You can find part 1, part 2, part 3, and part 4 already. Sean knows more abut EUC than most anyone else so there is good learning in these articles.

Tanzu Kubernetes Grid (TKG) Demo Appliance 1.1.3
William talks about the new stuff in the demo appliance - which is an amazing way to get started with K8’s.

NSX Data Center for vSphere 6.4.8 now GA
You can learn what is new in this release in the release notes.

Introducing ServiceNow ITSM 8.1 Plugin for vRealize Automation
This article talks about this new offering which sounds useful. There is a lot of ServiceNow out there, and vRA too.

What is VMware vCloud, and Why Should You Use it
This is a slightly odd article but it has good info in it.

vRealize Operations Manager 8.x Application Monitoring explain
This article will explain application monitoring and how to do that.  This is one of the features not often used by customers so it is good info.

List of security fixes and improvements in Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows
This KB article will detail the info which is good to know. I wish more vendors did this.

Veeam Availability Orchestrator v3: Changing the game for DR
Melissa has an article on this new version of VAO.  And it is a pretty cool update. I worked on VAO when I was at Veeam and think it one of the best DR orchestration tools out there.

Ransomware is attacking NAS data - are you prepared?
Michael has an interesting article on this subject and with good info to help remind you!

iOS 13.6.1, iPadOS 13.6.1, and macOS 10.15.6 Supplemental Update Stomp Bugs
You can learn more about these releases in this article.  I have updated iPhone, iPad Pro, and a MacBook Air with no issues. You can learn more about the macOS supplemental update in this article.

Photoshop will help ID images that have been …. Photoshopped
I think that this is a very nice idea - Adobe will add metadata to images that have been photoshopped so people can tell.

macOS “Must Have” Apps (business & geek) - 2020 Edition
Andre has an article with his must have apps and it is a pretty good list of apps! I use, or used to use, a number of them myself.

How to use Control Center on Apple Watch
I recently saw someone having trouble with the control center on their Apple watch so when I saw this article I thought to share it out in case it helps someone.

Soundsource 5
You can learn more about this app in this article. Not a tool I need but I think podcasting, or video shows might really like it.

How to fax from a computer without a phone line or fax machine
This is handy article as I no longer have a fax line or fax at home. Of course, I don’t need to fax that often either.

How to stop receiving public beta updates
This article can help you not get updated with beta updates.

watchOS 7 Public Beta is now available
You can learn more about this beta in this article.  I am not using the beta as I have only one Apple Watch and I need it to work perfect all of the time! It looks like this is going to be a big release.

macOS Big Sur: What’s new in the Photos app
This article talks about the new features in Photos in Big Sur.  I can agree they are useful and cool.

iOS 14: How to translate websites on iPhone and iPad
This is very cool and useful functionality. Find out how and more info in this article.

Apple relaunches Apple Music beta website with new Listen Now tab
I did not know that there was an Apple Music website, so this article on the new version was quite the surprise.

What is a black box and how does it work?
Someone asked me about this a while back and I explained it and then today I saw this article and thought to share it in case someone else wanted to learned more about black boxes.  Which are in fact not black but orange.

Running recoverydiagnose in macOS Recovery
I did not know this functionality existed but I see it as potential useful. Find out more in this article.

The Future of Security: Lessons from Black Hat USA
This article has some good info and a video with more.

Thanks for reading or skimming this far!

Michael

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