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….
Introducing PowervRNI
I am excited to introduce PowervRNI to the world! In the 3.6 release of vRealize Network Insight (vRNI) in November, there was a public API added. Through this API, you can offload certain tedious tasks like creating applications and managing data sources. I was using…
Top Posts & Stats of 2017
2017 is almost done and 2018 is upon us. Looking back at this blog and its posts in 2017, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for going on the virtualisation journey with us! We’ve had another awesome year, filled with good content…
Restoring a NSX Edge Gateway
NSX Manager has a backup and restore functionality. That process creates a backup of the entire NSX fabric and puts that backup on a remote (s)FTP server. All configuration is available within that backup, the Edge configuration is not separate. Being a good IT-citizen, of…
vRealize Lifecycle Manager puts a SysAdmin out of work.
Luckily that’s not true but vRealize Lifecycle Manager will enable SysAdmins to spend their time on service creation instead of installation and configuration of the platform. Now, quickly after the initial release on September 20th, VMware already released a new version of vRealize Lifecycle Manager….
NetFlow on Physical switches with vRealize Network Insight
With the release of vRealize Network Insight 3.6, the flow analyser inside vRNI now supports external sources for NetFlow. This means you can perform micro segmentation planning on physical servers (before you migrate them to virtual) and create deep insight into what network traffic is…
Keeping your applications Healthy and Secure
In the age of Digital Transformation, applications and the data they generate are the most important assets of your company. The application landscape is diverse. Traditional, client-server apps probably mixed with modern, containers and cloud native apps. And IT has to manage them all, keeping…
Host Preparation Troubleshooting Enhancements with NSX 6.3.5
VMware NSX 6.3.5 was released last week. This is a maintenance release and addresses 32 issues in previous versions. You can find the release notes here. One thing caught my eye which is a very welcome addition to 6.3.5; Host prep now has troubleshooting enhancements,…
What is a VMware Technical Account Manager
Almost three years ago I joined VMware to work as a Technical Account Manager or TAM. When I joined, I had no clue what a TAM does. I’ve heard about TAMs before. Microsoft has TAMs, Cisco has ’em too. But as I learned quickly, a…
How to upgrade vCenter server appliance to 6.5
I know that vSphere 6.5 is out for some time now, but I did not got to upgrading my own homelab up until last week. So last week I started the upgrade and I ran into two situations in wich I had to do a…
vRealize Network Insight Search Cheatsheet
One thing that I absolutely love about vRealize Network Insight (vRNI) is that the entire database is open by default and that the search bar is powered by Elastic Search. That means that you can type in pretty advanced search queries and basically query everything…
Building a cheap alternative for CrashPlan for Home
I use CrashPlan Home for all my off-site backups of my client devices. It’s a pretty neat and usable backup client which works on Mac OS, Linux and Windows. From the client you can restore individual files and it runs as a service for continuous…
HCI – State of the Union
HyperConverged Infrastructure or HCI is hot. Or not? I notice that when I’m talking to my customers, all of them are looking at HCI in one form or another. Though some of them end up going for the “old ways” because they don’t see the…
The end of vCenter for Windows. Why invest time now?
As many of you probably know vCenter for Windows will be deprecated with the next major release. This means you still have time before you have no choice but to upgrade to the vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA). But why wait with upgrading? If the technical benefits that the…
Getting a list of VDS Portgroups from the vCenter Database
Disclaimer: this is not something for production environments (at least, I hope for your sake, GSS should be able to fix it), but more for test or homelab environments. Say your vCenter is broken. And I mean really really broken to the point where you…
