Hello all,
I hope everyone is doing well? Things OK here. Lots of cool articles to share today.
I wrote several articles recently - one of reset of Ring, and one on reset of Nest. I am a big fan of Ring and Nest and think quite highly of both. I also had a guest author write an article that I found interesting too.
I have decided I cannot live without a lab. So after we finish our move - starting end of the week of the 15th, and getting internet going and WIFI, and receive new lab and storage, I will get a new lab working. I want to start doing technical articles again and helping people out. That is likely going to be end of month, or early next.
Next week, starting on Friday I will be moving. I will still try to do my newsletter but it may be late. The move is important as it will result in no more stairs in my life and that is a big deal.
I am writing this, proofreading, and link checks, while I listen to a James Bond playlist. Apple Music is pretty handy.
Stay safe out there, and enjoy the week! I have lots to share so lets get started!
Michael
Important Update - don’t upgrade to 7.0 U2 until patch is out
I heard this from William Lam, and he mentioned this KB article and this KB article.
VMware vSphere 7.0 Update 2 now GA
You can find the release notes for vCenter, and the release notes for ESXi. Here is the vCenter bits. Here is the ESXi bits. This looks like a big and interesting release. Make sure to read some of the articles below so you know a bit more of what you are getting with U2. Here is a KB article about discontinued CPU support.
VCSA 7.0 Update 2 Upgrade Issue - Exception occurred in install precheck phase
William has an article that talks about a problem and how to get through it for the U2 update of the vCSA.
New Features in vSphere 7.0 U2 - it supports multiple machine learning workloads
This article talks about the new support. It is a big deal, I know many think of the cryptocurrency side of it but I think other things as well - research is a big one. For things like medical, but it can also be good for other things like satellite work.
Announcing: vSphere 7.0 Update 2 Release
This is the official VMware article about the new release. It is a big release and excited to get it into the lab. When I have a lab.
VMware vSphere 7.0 Update 2 Announced
Christian has a nice write up in this article on U2. It is quite the release.
What’s New with vSAN 7 Update 2
John has the scope on this new release of vSAN in this article. Some good stuff. I love vSAN and I remember seeing it in operation when it was at RADIO and it was not even in the code yet and I thought it was amazing cool then and I immediately went to my boss to talk about it and say we should support it (he said yes!).
What’s New in vSphere 7 Update 2 Core Storage
This article talks about what is new in core storage and it is a lot. It should help performance too!
VMware ESXi 7.0 U2 announcement Info and links (and vCenter too)
This article has good info on the new ESXi release. Here is the vCenter article.
Faster vMotion Makes Balancing Workloads Invisible
Faster vMotion is pretty exciting - especially without buying 10 GB networking - and you can learn more in this article.
Introduction to VMware vSphere Native Key Provider
Bob has a video to introduce you to the new feature of a Native Key Provider that showed up with Update 2. Quite handy and may save customers money too.
VMware ESXi 7 Fails to Boot after Upgrade to Update 2
This article talks about problem, fix, and even a workaround. I think many people will run into this.
VMware vCenter 7.0 U2 deployment fails at stage 2
This article talks about a problem and has suggestions on how to troubleshoot. It also shares the solution and that solution is a best practice!
Quick Tip - Using ESXi to send Wake-on-Lan (WOL) packet
This is quite cool functionality, even though not sure how or when I would use it. I do like WOL and have used it in the past. William is another guy that always share good info and is pretty fun to talk with.
vCenter Server Tasks Management
This article talks of vCenter tasks but also how you can add tasks in. I hope some vendors check it out.
Aquantia / Marvel AQtion (Atlantic) drive now inbox in ESXi 7.0 U2
William talks about how this 10GB driver is now included in 7.0 U2 which is pretty nice as it means no need to do image builder stuff.
vROps Management Pack for Kubernetes
If you have Kubernetes you should have this cool new management pack to help you manage it - in the same way as the rest of your environment.
Adding A Domain joined PowerShell Host to vRO 8
This article is interesting but I must admit I have not worked with vRO for a long time.
What’s New in SRM and vSphere Replication 8.4
Cato covers off nicely what is new in SRM. I love SRM. I spent amazing amounts of time on the road working with local SE’s to POC and sell SRM 1.0.
How to clean up stale vSphere Containers Volumes & First Class Disks?
William helps you with this and shares good info too in this article.
Deploy and Configure the NSX Advanced Load Balancer for vSphere with Tanzu
A very useful article on how to make this work. Nice job David!
Deploy vSphere with Tanzu using vSphere Networking with the NSX Advanced Load Balancer
Another useful article from David - much thanks!
Velero vSphere Operator backup / restore TKG “guest” cluster objects in vSphere with Tanzu
Cormac always writes interesting stuff and this article is no different. He is very good at educating us!
VMware Horizon 8 on VMware vSAN and vSAN File services
This article has a good point. Design needs to be simple so it has less issues and is easier to support. I learned that the hard way when I was professional service and building things from customers. I think the combination of vSAN, vSAN File services is a pretty powerful combo and great for VDI.
Configuring Azure AD / MFA authentication for Horizon DaaS and Cloud
This article provides help for configuring Azure AD / MFA for a number of platforms.
Virtual Volumes event by Pure Storage
I have been told the person doing this webinar knows more about vVols than anyone. I am very fond of vVols and I like how they improve troubleshooting and organization too.
Introducing the vRealize Network Insight Search Exchange
What a great idea - vRNI does have an amazing search engine, so a place to find sample searches is pretty cool. Learn more in this article.
V11: Strengthening your Digital Resilience
A nice article that talks about how you can use V11 of Veeam to better protect your backups which is - sort of - digital resilience.
Creating a Backup repository in Veeam Backup & Replication V11
Al has a nice article to help you get your repo built so you can start getting ready to do backups!
PowerCLI one-liner get the list of users and groups from vCenter SSO
This is a useful PowerCLI one-liner when you want to audit things! Check out the article.
PowerShell: How to create logging for your PowerShell Scripts
An interesting article that can help you do logging from your scripts which I think is a good idea.
HomeLab Stage LIV: Datacenter Documentation
This article talks about some useful documentation support for your datacenter - or home lab if it is big enough.
Two Factor Authentication
I came across this web site that shows all the web sites that support 2FA. It is interesting as it shows that many use SMS and some use hardware tokens.
iOS 14: Here’s why there’s an orange dot on your iPhone
This article explains the orange dot. If you don’t want to read than orange is microphone and green is camera and signifies they are on.
CarPlay FAQ: Everything you need to know about Apple’s automotive dashboard software
This article will pass on some info on CarPlay. I have talked to a number of CarPlay users and they have loved it. It makes things much easier.
How to use Activity Monitor to Troubleshoot Problems on a Mac
This article will get you started with Activity Monitor which is powerful tool on the mac
How to enable “Your Watch is Fully Charged” notifications in WatchOS 7 and iOS 14
Interesting functionality I did not know about but if you want you phone to be notified your watch is fully charged you can check out this article.
iOS / iPadOS / WatchOS / macOS updates
You can learn more about the update in this article. For what it is worth,, I have updated at least 1 device in each category. Actually in the watch area I did not do the upgrade of the watch as it was done while I was sleeping but it still worked good. These are security updates so they are important to do, and do soon.
A 2021 Guide to Mobile Device Security
You might get some good ideas from this article on security for mobile devices. I think it is worth it for corporate mobile devices to improve security.
packetStrider - A Network Packet Forensics Tool for SSH
This tool sounds interesting and useful for security people and you can learn more in this article.
Is it safe to upgrade to macOS 11 Big Sur?
I saw this article and think it is a little off. If your apps work and your Mac is supported I think it is worth upgrading to Big Sur. Partially so that you get the security fixes fast, but also it works good. I have been using it on old and new gear with no issues.
At Least 30,000 US Organizations Newly Hacked via holes in Microsoft’s Email Software
This article talks about this amazing situation.
Thanks for reading or skimming this far,
Michael
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