Add Veeam to a Workgroup, Domain or Forest?
Microsoft Active Directory is the heart of the IT infrastructure for nearly every organization. When setting up the Veeam Availability infrastructure keep in mind the principle that a data protection system should not rely on the environment it is meant to protect in any way!…
How to install HyTrust KeyControl 5.1 in vSphere 6.7
In vSphere 6.7 VMware has added a new device called virtual TPM 2.0. Before you can use and add this device to virtual machines vSphere VM Encryption needs to be in place. Starting with vSphere 6.5, you can take advantage of Virtual Machine encryption. Encryption…
Unable to backup iSCSI volume with Veeam Agent for Windows
For creating a backup of a VMware VM with an iSCSI connected volume you can use a Veeam Agent for Windows (VAW). A specific case at a customer last week sparked my interest because they pinged me why they kept failing to do a proper…
Using VMware and Veeam? Update VBR 9.5 to Update 3a now
Veeam just released their latest update for Veeam Backup & Replication 9.5 Update 3a with lots of support for new VMware platform versions! Are you already running or planning to update to VMware vSphere 6.5 Update 2 or vSphere version 6.7? Make sure you update…
Best Practices for Hardening the Veeam Backup Repository (Windows)
A good way of hardening the backup repository is by running it on a standalone Windows Server with storage attached to it. Create/Use a local account with administrative access and make sure only this (newly created) account has access rights to the location where the…
How to build a Hyper-Available Infrastructure – Part 1: Overview
In today’s digital world we highly depend on services and their corresponding data to be available 24/7. We are frantic about our digital life and demand the underlying infrastructures to be Hyper-available. While traveling through the region to visit customers and partners, I am highly…
How to harden the Veeam Backup Repository
The Veeam Backup Repository is a storage location used to store backup files, VM copies, configuration backups (BCO) and auxiliary replica files. There are several flavours of Veeam backup repositories, namely: Windows, Linux or Specific DeDuplication devices like the ExaGrid, EMC DataDomain or HPE StoreOnce….
VMworld 2017 Hot News – Building Tomorrow
And just as you think it cannot be better, faster and become more interesting you find out it can! VMware announced several new updates to its products on VMworld 2017 in Las Vegas. According to Pat Gelsinger, CEO VMware, VMware’s goal is to connect people…
How to remove the Veeam Backup & Replication Console
The Veeam Backup & Replication console is a client-side component that provides access to the backup server. The console lets several backup operators and admins log in to Veeam Backup & Replication simultaneous and perform all kind of data protection and disaster recovery operations as…
5 Tips for Infrastructure Hardening
While compiling this blog post last couple of weeks this weekend all hell broke loose! A large-scale ransomware attack was launched against users of any Windows system worldwide. Showing us that security is all about a pre-care balance between protection and usability. Running your infrastructure in…
Why Upgrade to ESX 6.x? Snapshot handling!
A lot of organisations are still on older versions of VMware vSphere. I see ESXi deployments in the field which run on version 4.1, 5.0 and 5.5 regularly. When I ask them why they do not upgrade, I get all sorts of answers. The most…
How to Fix Slow Windows VMs on VMware Fusion 8.x
I am a long-time user of VMware Fusion, which enables me for example to run Microsoft Visio on my MacBook Air. I also use Windows VMs to test out new software for work, blogging and educational purposes. Still deeply hoping Microsoft will port Visio to…
How to correctly modify the .vmx file in VMware Fusion 8.x
When running with VMware Fusion you sometimes are required to set settings for Virtual Machines which are not available through the settings menu. This means you should edit the .vmx file of that specific VM. An incorrectly edited .vmx file will result in a virtual…
Melvin and Cloudia reviewing the VMGuru Year
Another year rushed by for the VMGuru crew and what a strange year it has been with several highs and lows. We have seen half of the VMGuru crew members performing a human vMotion to a new exiting and sometimes uncertain challenge. Martijn started as a Systems…
Three Dimensions of Storage Sizing & Design – Part 4: Throughput
In this fourth post of the multi-post Three Dimensions of Storage Sizing & Design we will dive deeper in the dimension: Use and specifically the application Workloads part characteristic Throughput. Depending on the application workload requirements, you will need to size the storage system for…