Hello all,
I hope everyone is well and healthy. I know COVID-19 seems to be on the rise in so many places. Including where I live too. Our government brought in new restrictions on Thursday and they are the wimpiest and most useless restrictions.
Did you get to see the Apple event this week? It was pretty amazing. If you are interested in tech it was very worth watching. I could not help myself and I purchased one of the M1 MacBook Airs and I am quite excited to get it - which is about in two weeks. If you want you can catch the event on Apple TV and here on the web. When I have played with my new MBA I will let you know how it goes. Some of the claims about the M1 and the new computers were pretty wild - like 18 or 20 hours of battery life and many times faster in various things. But we will see.
I have reached out over the last while to a number of you for help. I really appreciate your help. I am sorry I have to ask for help, but I am not doing well with ALS and so as a result I sometimes miss things and need to ask for help. So thank you for helping!
I have updated my HomePod article with some of the new functionality and it is sort of fun - the intercom is handy, but also can be a very big surprise for people when HomePod starts talking and telling them what to do!
I have a range of different articles to share this week so I should get started.
Have a great week,
Michael
My Big Sur Upgrade
It took a while to download, and long to do. But it came out just fine. One app doesn’t work - SuperDuper, but that is expected. Any image copy utility - such as SuperDuper or CarbonCopy will not work after the upgrade due to changes under the hood of Big Sur. They are complex so updates to support Big Sur will take a while. All my other apps work fine - Horizon, SecureCRT, Secure File Deletion, Evernote, and NetNewsWire. I have used each of the different beta on this same MacBook Air and most things have worked good. It was very high quality beta. BTW, the download size if you are a beta user is just under 5 GB and if you are not a beta user it is 12 GB. BTW, the version is 11.0.1 not 11.0 as you see in all the press.
Disaster Recovery That Can Scale
This is an interesting article about VMware IT and how big they are and how they do DR. It is good info and nice to see such a big customer talking about DR but you do not have to have NSX to be successful. It is handy, and helpful but not necessary.
VMware IT’s Journey to a Hybrid Cloud Solution
This article is like many others but you might learn things to think about from it before you go to a cloud.
vSAN 7.0 U1 - File Service SMB Support
Cormac shows you how to configure the new SMB support in File Service in this article.
Which vSAN Policy changes will trigger a rebuild?
Duncan has an interesting article that answers the question.
Quick Tip - Rebooting VCSA causes vSphere with Tanzu to show ESXi hosts not licensed for Workload Management
William has the details on the problem, and a workaround, and he has reported it as a bug.
Using Terraform to deploy a Tanzu Kubernetes Grid (TKG) Cluster in vSphere with Tanzu
Interesting article by William about using Terraform to deploy Tanzu.
vRealize Automation 8.1 Deployment - Step by Step
An interesting article on background info on vRA and how to deploy it. Nicely done! Here is the next article in the series.
VMware LifeCycle Manager import updates bundle and patch ESXi server
This article shows you how to import patches / updates into LifeCycle Manager and do the update. Most patches come done automatically so no need to import them.
Using vRealize Log Insight to troubleshoot #ESXi 7 Error - Host hard voltage System board 18 VBAT
A great example in this article about troubleshooting and how Log Insight can help. This is probably a good one for those of use who have Supermicro gear to remember.
vRealize Log Insight 8.2 Architecture
Here is a video that goes over LI architecture and cluster info and some background info too.
PowerCLI script to check if VMs get backed up by Veeam B&R
This is most easily done with Veeam ONE but if you don’t have it this script could be very useful - find out how to do it in this article.
Sizing Veeam Cloud Connect using Big Data
Luca has an interesting article on sizing for the service providers that I think should work better than the best practices.
Complete vSphere with Tanzu homelab with just 32 GB of memory!
Pretty cool stuff in this article and the fact that Tanzu running in just 32 GB of memory is amazing. I also like how William always shares the details on how.
Using PowerShell with Tanzu and the Kubernetes API
Cody has you covered on this subject via this article. I had no idea that PowerShell would work.
Network Principles for Cloud Connectivity
This article talks about network stuff that is important to think about when moving or thinking of moving to the cloud.
pfSense Firewall rules for VMware homelab quick overview
This article provides good info on pfSense and additional articles on it too.
Pure Storage & VMware: Adaptive Queueing, Storage I/O Control and QoS (Part 1)
This article is full of good and deep info that Pure customers should be very happy to read.
VMware vSphere Bitfusion Release 2.5.0 Delivers the Feature Mix You Wanted
This article does have good info in it, but I think an engineer or student wrote it. Certainly not technical marketing.
OneDrive vs. Dropbox: The Ultimate comparison
You can learn about either or both of these services in this article.
Gallery: Travel photographer August Mann compares iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max cameras
Some good pictures and as a result good learning about the cameras in these new iPhones.
FDA approves Apple Watch app NightWare to treat PTSD nightmares
This article talks about a new app that can help with nightmares and it has been approved for PTSD stuff which is most excellent.
How to tell if your USB-C cable is USB only or supports Thunderbolt 3
This article will show you how to tell what your USB-C cable can do. Very worthwhile but also bad as likely you may need to buy a new cable or two.
Magsafe Is Cool, but is it worth the trade-offs?
An interesting article that is quite well done on this subject. I think it important to read this if you are a user of the new magsafe.
MacOS Big Sur compatibility: Find out if your device will work with the new OS
This article has a list of the supported hardware. I thought one of my older MBA was not supported since yesterday I could not install Big Sur to it, but the article said it was supported, so I tried today and the upgrade worked great.
Apple’s November 2020 Event: By The Numbers
I really like this article as it is all about the numbers mentioned in the event. Very handy.
Apple M1 Chip Powers New MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac Mini
This article by Tidbits is a nice overview of the products released this week.
Apple Announces a new M1-powered 13-inch MacBook Pro
The details can be found in this article.
How unified memory blows the SoCs off the M1 Macs
This article talks about the memory and system on a chip for the M1 macs. Mostly good background educational info.
MacBook Air with M1 chip outperforms 16-inch MacBook Pro in benchmark testing
This article talks about how fast the MBA is, and I am was not surprised with what they say in the event.
7 announcements you may have missed at the Apple Silicon Mac Event
This article will mention a few things to remember that you may or may not have heard already.
iOS 14.2: Ask Siri for a personalized daily update on iPhone or HomePod
This is a nice feature and I use it. Find out the details on how in this article.
Pick up an iPad Air? Here’s how to get the most out of iPadOS 14 and Apple Pencil
The pencil and what it can do on an iPad is pretty amazing but I do not see it being used much. This article might help!
How to set your HomePod as your default speaker on Apple TV
I know that in the past this was not easy to do, and it did not stick, but now it can stick so that is a big improvement. Find out how and more in this article.
Best VPN services: Reviews and buying advice
If you need a VPN to browse safely this article could help you pick a good VPN.
Understanding 5G, and Why It’s the Future (not present) for Mobile Communications
A really good write-up on 5G and what it means to us in this article. Really good points in it actually.
How to use adjust light and colour in the Photo’s app for iPhone and iPad
This article is handy info if you are not aware of how you can edit photo’s on your iPad or iPhone.
Thanks for reading or skimming this far,
Michael
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