Some people say that snapshots are not backups. While that’s a claim with dubious merit, they certainly can form part of your backup and data protection plans. We all know snapshots are cool. Array snapshots are also cool. In this post, I’m going to examine using Dell EMC array based Continue Reading
VMware
VMware vSphere 6.5 – Datastore Expansion: VMFS version UI Bug
A “what the…? ” moment, expanding a datastore and the GUI indicated that after expansion, the VMFS version will be VMFS 6….. As we all know, upgrading the VMFS version of a datastore to VMFS 6 without erasing the contents is not possible, so at face value this looks like Continue Reading
Dell EMC Unity and VMware VVols – What’s all the fuss? Pt1
There’s been lots of talk about the wonders of VVols for a long time. They seemed to be a large amount of hope that they would be the panacea of all our Storage and Virtualization woes and be the vision going forward, at least for our VMware environments. The hype Continue Reading
Dell EMC CloudIQ – VMware integration
Part Deux ! Following on from my recent look at the CloudIQ mobile version, let’s take a look at a brand new functionality addition to this application. The same integrations, insights and monitoring are now available for you VMware environment, right in the Cloud IQ console. This allows Continue Reading
CommVault 11 and VMware – ‘Virtualize Me’ Restores
Virtualize Me is a really useful feature that I’ve not had the requirement to use until recently. For any number of reasons, most companies still have actual Physical Hosts running normal workloads. They may not have been virtualized for a similar number of reasons. That’s life. I found myself with Continue Reading
CommVault and VMware – VSA Backup Filtering options
There’s always been a number of ways to apply filters to VM’s and disks. It could be done at the Backup-Set or Sub-client level. This is a little bit clunky and can lead to unnecessary VM’s being backed up. If you’re using a Capacity based licence, this is Continue Reading
Quick Fix – VMware WS: Windows cannot find the Microsoft Software License Terms.
Had a little issue when trying to install a fresh Windows Server 2016 vm in my lab today. I don’t install many Windows guests at home (mostly Linux) but had never had an issue on older builds. Setup: VMware Workstation Pro 12.5.6 build-5528349 Windows Build: 14393.rs1 This was installing off the Continue Reading
Quick Fix-VMware Workstation- The user did not accept the license agreement by passing EULAS_AGREED=1 on the command line
One of the nice benefits of being a vExpert is the licenses kindly provided to various VMware apps including VMware Workstation. After receiving the codes this year and downloading the latest version, it should have been a simple process to install, right ? Dbl-Click, next, next, next…. ? Moments after confirming Continue Reading
ESXi 5.5 – Automating VMFS UNMAP w/ PowerCLI and PowerShell
With vSphere 6.5 recently released, a nice feature was the automated execution of the UNMAP command against thin provisioned datastores to reclaim space. This requires no user interaction, it’s fully automated for you and can free up significant amounts of space from your datastores. There’s some good information regarding the Continue Reading
VMware DRS rule manipulation using PowerCLI (EMC VPLEX use case) Part 1.
VPLEX is another of my favourite products, and for good reason. I currently run a Metro cluster underneath a VMware platform that has proven to be super reliable. One important design consideration for this is to ensure that VM’s are configured for site bias. Why ? Glad you asked. In Continue Reading