About

I am highly experienced across diverse technologies and industries, with a recent focus on Cloud, Workflow Automation/Orchestration, Storage, Virtualization platforms, Business Continuity, Disaster Recovery & Data Center Management/Optimization. Certifications: https://www.credly.com/users/brett-sinclair/badges?sort=-state_updated_at&page=1 -Microsoft Azure Administrator – AZ104 -Microsoft Information Protection Administrator – SC400 -Proofpoint Certified Insider Threat Specialist -Amazon Web Services (AWS) Continue Reading

VMware ESXi – PowerCLI for bulk vSwitch changes

The reward for effort when scripting is almost always worth it. Today I had the task of removing a particular AntiVirus product from a 36 host VDI cluster. Part of this requires the removal of NSX-Manager and all the groovy components it uses to do it’s thing, including a vSwitch Continue Reading

VMware & Dell EMC Unity – Restore VM/Datastore from array snapshots

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

Dell EMC Unity – Bulk enable Advanced Dedup after upgrade

One of the shortcomings in an otherwise really good UI in the Unity platform is the inability to make bulk changes to many objects. While making the changes are easy, applying it to many or even hundreds of objects is impractical and time consuming. Boring. Recently after an upgrade to Continue Reading

Dell EMC Unity – Quick Tip- Be careful with Auto LDAP config

Sometimes you learn things the hard way. I recently had a Unity 550f Array that developed a penchant for a couple of sub-optimal behaviour traits….. Freezing NAS server and SP reboots. Not often, but these are the sorts of issues that can cause you a lot of grief, in a 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 Unity AFA-OE version 4.5x Upgrade

Gone are the days of 6 hour, nerve racking updates for Storage Arrays. They used to be a logistical nightmare. Change Control, careful planning. What if it goes pear shaped ? These are things that used to keep us up at night. Driven by a requirement of quick and frequent updates, 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