Last month I sat and passed the VCIX-NV exam. Driven, like a lot of others, by the impending retirement of the exam that keeps getting extended…more on tha...

PowerCLI running in a Docker Container on Photon OS in under 10 minutes

From OVA download to Get-VM, sub 10 mins!

ssh to Cygwin fails after Computer joins domain

recreating the missing local userDB

Newly created vsphere.local SSO user gets username/password error

Why VMware's own defaults are wrong

Reasons to upgrade NSX 6.0/6.1 to 6.2

Bugs that are fixed in 6.2 cause controller issues

2015

vSphere vApps unaffected by Back to 28 Vulnerability (CVE-2015-8370)

Back to 28 Vulnerability

ESXi and AD Part 2 Joining a Domain without Domain Admin Privileges

You need to join an ESXi host to AD but you do not have Domain Admins

ESXi and AD Part 1 - Integration Checklist

This first post is to run through common issues that are simple and “reasonable” to presume the end-user/sysadmin has checked first

VMworld Europe Schedule and New things to do this time

I am not a N00b! - Telling vCenter to stop showing you getting started pages!

I should have found this years ago.

All hail the PSC - Long Live the appliance!

VMware started as a Type 2 Hypervisor for doing a bit of lab/development testing on.

VCP-NV=EZ

It’s been 2 weeks now since I sat and passed the VCP-NV. Straight after the exam I went on holiday and on coming back I got straight back into work.

The iSCSI Mystery (+Death to e1000s)

I was asked to look at an issue recently with bad IO performance on an SQL VM. SQLio tests were being run and the figures coming back were much lower than e...

New Domain, Github Hosted, Jekyll built!

This it my new site/blog which is hosted on Github Pages and created with Jekyll. It’s a steep learning curve as I’ve not used either before and involved a l...

Upgrading your HomeLab to Windows 10 + VMware Workstation ??

I run my home lab on a PC running Windows 8.1 and VMware Workstation 10. The PC has an i7 with HT, 32GB RAM and an SSD.

Devops/Agile/Webscale....too many terms too little time- DevOPs Tools and Terms Cheat Sheet

I’m going to ignore any comments about DevOPs being a vague term like Cloud which means different things to different people.

Training Resource Review - Pluralsight + Jason Nash's NSX Courses

In a recent change of tack to my learning plan I’ve moved from revising VCAP-DCA to VCP-NV. This has been driven by a need for work to be familiar with NSX ...

VMware News Roundup - Announcement-ageddon!!!

There was armageddon, then snowmageddon and now announcementageddon.

32Gb vSphere Homelab stumbling block - Licensing dilemma

I upgraded my pc to a beefy spec just before Christmas. i7 4770s giving me 8 threads to throw at VMWorkstation and 16Gb of memory, along with my existing SS...

VCAP-DCA510 Failing to pass doesn't mean failing to learn

Last Thursday I got the early train to Leeds stationed myself in a coffee shop and proceeded to stuff coffee and pastries into my mouth and last minute vSphe...

Host Profiles to the Rescue!

I haven’t used host profiles much in anger. I’ve seen them used as first snapshots of host config, but rarely updated (naughty I know!).

My Real-World VCAP Scenario to test scripting

I’ve been racking my brains thinking of a real-life VCAP-esque scenario that would force me to write a PowerCLI script.

Google doesn't answer Forums/Communities posts.....YOU do!

[caption id=”” align=”aligncenter” width=”485”] http://xkcd.com/979/[/caption]

My vSphere HomeLab

Everyone’s got one, and like petrolheads showing off their v8 or GTI here’s my vSphere homelab.

Best VCAP Study Aid is another person's time & help

Like many I’m currently cramming for my VCAP-DCA.

2014

Networking - North-South, East-West. Don't be embarrassed to ask

Terminology shouldn't be a barrier to learning

VMworld - Finally at the Frontier!

VMworld report

vExpert - Why go for it?

vSphere VM Hotplug functionality confuses AD GPO and locks out non system drives

I was asked to look at an issue on a customer account where when a server VM, used as a XenApp Dynamic Desktop server is moved from Computers OU to the desir...

Getting Back on the Horse! (Destination VCAP5-DCA)

After passing my VCP, and subsequently falling back into the bad habit of not studying! I’ve managed to get the VMware authorisation Pearson Vue confirmat...

UCS Manager Security Hardening (or not) in a vBlock

Another of the outputs of our recent penetration test was an issue with Weak Ciphers in both the IPMI service on C200 Rack servers and B220 M3 blades and the...

ESXi/vCenter hardening (inventory service issue)

We had a Pen Test done recently on a couple of vBlocks that we need some security accreditation against. (See how I'm being vague there for security reasons ...

VCP5 Passed - Grasp The Nettle! (VCAP next)

VCP5 Experience Blog Post

Allowing automated installs of newer VMtools than the host version (Caveat for Trend Deep Security)

During a recent patching cycle VMtools across a set of VMs were updated to the latest version. This was to patch security vulnerabilities in the versions wh...

Watchlist - Mobile app to monitor hosts and VMS in vSphere

Mobile apps for vSphere

VCP5 Lab Tweak - vApp/HA for one?

I’ve been using my little HP Microserver and it’s a beauty. However I do have to keep powering it on and then connecting with vi client to the host then pow...

VCP5 - NPIV, why? Because you can!

I’ve been revising for a good few weeks now.

VCP5 Study. Pay it forward - An unexpected source of revision/practice

I first commented on the VMware communities forums back in 2006 on an ESX 2.x related issue someone was having. I had a 7 years hiatus from 2007 to now :-)

VCP5 Revision WWTWCD - What Would The Web Client Do?!

Very very brief one this, but it had me foxed for 5 minutes and time is precious!

VCP5 - Ditching Auto-Deploy!

After being an evangelist last week I’m now converting my Auto-Deploy ESXi hosts into Stateful installs and therefore ditching their wonderful ephemeralness!

VCP 5 - Objective 1.2 - Host/Configuration Tab (in essence!)

So here I’m going to describe what many possibly have done before, but it’s needed for the exam…..so here goes.

Sometimes Windows is just better - Configuring RHLES OS updates with mrepo/RHN

RHLES RHUI configuration tricks and tips

Answered-Can you Daisy Chain VMware Update Manager Download Service?

I had a design/suggested infrastructure set up on a recent project which basically had UMDS on a server in a DMZ getting ESXi patches from the internet via a...

VCP5 Auto Deploy - Much more than just an automated ESXi install

Revision. It means to review (previously studied materials) according to dictionary.com

VCP5 Objective 1.2 “Quickly” Deploying Using AutoDeploy - Take 2

So when last we spoke I had left Linux updating.

VCP5 - Objective 1.2 "Quickly" Deploying Using AutoDeploy (3hrs later!!! ;-)

So tonight’s revision was meant to be pretty quick. It is Game Of Thrones night after all!

VCP5 - Fixing SSL Cert on newly deployed vCenter Server Appliance after changing IP

So you deploy the VCA from the OVA. Easy peasy. Any monkey could do that!

VCP5- My Lab Components

This one should hopefully be short :-)

VCP5 - Me and my virtual history

I’m 37, work at a global IT services company with big customers. When I started in 2005 my first project was helping deploy 10s of ESX hosts. Yes “ESX” v2....

VCP 5 - The Journey Begins

I passed my VCP4 way back in 2011. Shortly after (very shortly!) those pesky developers released vSphere5. VMware generously allowed VCP4’s to upgrade by t...

2013

Nasty Nas Behaviour

layout: post title: NASty NAS behaviour! date: 2013-04-28T18:00:00+00:00 comments: true tags: cloudstation dsm nas synology Now let me ...

2012

How to get XP for free

I recently had a request to provide some instructions for newly transitioned users on Windows 7 on “Where is it in Windows 7 compared to XP”. Now I’ve seen ...