Hello all,
I hope this finds everyone good and safe! I started writing this in the mountains which means I could look up from the screen and see mountains! But I will finish it at home using two monitors which really helps.
I wanted to say thank you to those that read the newsletter. Means a lot to me. I also want to say thank you to those of you that produce the articles that I read and like, then share out via the newsletter.
BTW, I am going to buy another lab and start doing technical articles again - we have to move first, then I need to make it work in the new house!
I have been asked about all the trips to Africa I have done. The best walking safari I ever did was with Tropical Ice, and we did another trip with them in India - to see tigers. They are an amazing company and I recommend them without reservation.
Lots to share so lets get started!
Michael
Is your VMware vCenter Publicly Available?
Good article by Christian and with good points. No need to have vCenter or ESXi publicly accessible.
Can I vMotion a VM while IO Insight is tracing it?
Duncan answers the question after testing it and you can learn about it - and the answer - in this article.
Microsoft CA:Installing Custom vSphere 7 Certificates, and enabling VMCA to act as the intermediate CA
Long and detailed article that can help you with what the title suggests! Some good screenshots too will be quite helpful.
Announcing VMware Cloud designlets
This may not be as exciting or handy as it is suggested in this article. Design tools for features sometimes makes thing harder to build overall. But we will see.
Complement your VDI environment with NSX: Introspection Services
This article series is pretty interesting. I think this introspection is amazing and super powerful potentially.
Getting started with the VMware Horizon Service
I have not heard of this before, so this short article was a surprise. I could see this being useful for the large companies that span the globe. But for small companies not sure - I guess it depends on the cost model.
An update on VMware Horizon 32-bit support
This article talks about the plans for 32-bit support in Horizon and when and how it will stop. I think for most of us this make sense.
Getting started with VMware Cloud Disaster Recovery
Here is part 1, and part 2. And it sounds pretty interesting. A big part of my career was BCDR so it is cool to see how things are developing and changing.
Check how long a VM is turned off in vSphere using vROps
Dean has another cool article that shows off some cool functionality in vROps that I suspect many of us did not know it was there.
Register vRO 8.2 with vCD 10.2
Matthias has an interesting article on connecting vRO and vCD and he suggests the documentation is not so good so his article will be very helpful.
The VMware Labs Flings Monthly for Feburary 2021 - Reach Alert
In this article you can learn about the new and updated flings. Very handy.
Decoding Services Roles / Permissions from a VMware Cloud Services Platform (CSP) Token
William has a nice article about generating tokens in VMware Cloud which makes things work. He mentions he has seen a number of people do the token wrong so this article is good timing!
Easily create custom ESXi images from patch releases using vSphere Image Builder UI
This article is quite interesting and useful. I used to add drivers to my ESXi image but it was done in a different method and with a different tool. And what William is showing looks easier.
Use-Case: Execute PowerCLI scripts as vSphere Alarm Actions using Script Runtime Service
Interesting article about how you can have vSphere alarms trigger PowerCLI scripts. The setup is quite interesting!
New Release - vSphereDSC 2.2
I like desired state config type tools. This article talks about the latest VMware supplied PowerCLI one.
PowerCLI Cookbook for VMware vSAN
This looks like a very useful cookbook if you wish to do PowerCLI with vSAN. Nice job Jase! Lots of useful example code.
Bug noticed on vCSA 14367737 Syslog Configuration
This article talks about a problem, workaround and a solution.
VMware VXLAN: What is it and how to use it
This article breaks down VXLAN nicely and lots of detail.
How to successfully upgrade NSX-T from 3.1.0 to 3.1.1
This article will help you do your upgrade of NSX-T.
How to backup and restore NSX-T
This article will help you understand what should be backed up and what does not need to be backed up and of course how to backup.
What’s new with relative to VMware Tanzu?
This very short article sort of answers the question.
How does Pure Storage integrate with vSAN?
Cody does a great job of answering this question and of course he is completely right too.
NVMe-oF Multipath Configuration for Pure Storage datastores
This article should be quiet useful for VMware Pure customers, particularly if NVMe type stuff is in use.
VMware’s Approach to Multi-Cloud: A Strategy or an inevitable Outcome> (or both?)</strong
Kit has an interesting article on what VMware is doing in the Cloud space and why. The why is mostly it works better for customers which is nice to see.
Convert PEM to PFX certificates to use with VMware UAGs
This article will step you nicely through the process.
Installing and configuring Kasten to protect container workloads on VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid
Dean has another great article to help you out and this one is about getting backup working.
vSphere with Tanzu stateful application backup/restore using Velero vSphere Operator
Cormac has an interesting article that will demo stateful application backup using Velero and it is quite useful! Good to have multiple backup choices!
Kubernetes in the Enterprise - with HPE
This article is by Nigel Poulton and is quite interesting.
Internal Firewalls for Dummies guide
You can get this book from this link if you need it. And yes, I think internal firewalls are pretty useful and handy in today’s climate.
Apple confirms it does not hold your Apple ID hostage due to missed Apple Card Payment
It has been said, by one person, that it is true that Apple holds your Apple ID hostage, but now Apple has spoken up and said no, not true. Find out all the details in this article.
Don’t go to 11: Insights from the Apple Hearing Study
Some interesting info from the Apple Hearing Study in this article. Don’t go to 11 is important.
Licensing Veeam V11:What’s New and what’s not
This is a license info type article but it is also very interesting and well written too. Worth reading if you are a Veeam customer or Partner.
Veeam Upgrade Centre for v11
This upgrade center is pretty handy - so thanks Rick! Lots of good info and links to useful stuff too.
All new Azure backup and recovery is now generally available
David has an interesting article about this new functionality. Don’t forget to read the note too!
V11: Linux, Mac, Azure, and more! Increase power and reach with Veeam Service Provider Console v5
In this article you can learn more about the new and updated features in the Service Provider Console. But also how you can use it to make customers happy!
V11: Instant Recovery, Re-Invented again with Veeam
Rick has an article that talks all about instant recovery which is an important topic.
Veeam Immutable Backups with Pure Storage FlashArray//C SafeMode
This article talks about how you can have immutable backups with Veeam - which is very important using Pure Storage functionality. After all immutable means they cannot be deleted or changed.
Stop Trusting Spanning Backup with your Data
A powerful article on how this product sucks. I suspect others will hit this issue too. Good that the author shared his experience so it might help others out.
Powershelling away at Bitlocker
If you ever wanted to enable, or check the status of Bitlocker using Powershell this article will help you. It is not really difficult once you see the article.
How to save your M1 Mac by booting into Recovery Mode
This article is quite informative as on an M1 you cannot hold down cmd+r to get into recovery mode. I really like my M1 MBA and I have not needed recovery mode so I did not know it was different.
M1 MacBook Air vs Pro: What to buy and why to spend extra on RAM and storage
This article can help you with the buying decision, and with good points too, but I can say I am very happy with my M1 MBA.
How to use the Lidar scanner in the iPhone 12 Pro
Very interesting article on lidar and what you can do with it.
Where did my Internet Speed go?
This article talks about some good points and it should help people understand better the communication of the Internet. Sometimes it is not your connection that is slow but the connection you are talking with.
Highway Vehicle Fires
This is not the normal type of article I share but I thought it was interesting, and the numbers are amazing - 19 vehicle fires every hour in the US for example.
How important is Encryption to online Privacy and Security?
This article is basic but good info and more people should understand what it talks about.
107 ways to improve vSphere & vSAN security
This is being done by Bob who is very smart and knowledgeable around security so likely very good education!
Thanks for reading or skimming this far,
Michael
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Long time reader first time commenter 😉
I’ve been reading your newsletter for a while and find it very helpful. I appreciate the time and effort you put into it!
Thank you!
Thanks very much, I appreciate your comments!
Michael
Totally agree - I also been using Michael’s blog for a very long time. Great compilation of articles in one place. I always find something useful to read and apply.
Thanks Michael
Thanks Tom, much appreciated. And I will try and keep this going for as long as possible. I will maybe late this month or early next have a lab again and I will start up the technical articles again.
Michael