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
Back to basics
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 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
Useful Search utility – Everything
I’ve often been underwhelmed by the performance of the built-in Windows Search utilities, particularly for simple searches like finding filenames containing a specific string. That led me to search for something better. Years ago I found one that suits my need perfectly, “Everything” by voidtools http://voidtools.com/ After install, it creates Continue Reading
Cisco UCS Quick Fix – FFCH_ERROR_OLD_FIRMWARE_RUNNING
The following warning greeted me in the Cisco UCS Manager today; There was no issue on the host (an ESXi 5.5 server) and everything else on the host seemed normal. This was a recently commissioned B200 M4 server. The running firmware version is 2.25(b). A search on Quick View showed 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
AWS and PowerShell – Let’s be friends Part 1
I first used AWS approximately 4 years ago. At that time, programmatic management of services was not an easy hurdle to jump and required regular ‘feeding & watering’. Naturally, these tools have matured greatly so whatever tool-set you are most comfortable with has a well developed set of features/options available 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
ESXi – Removing a stubborn Nexus 1000v VIB
Happened upon an unusual error while wrestling a Nexus 1000v out of a ESXi 5.1 host. All seemed to progress well, the host was removed from the dvs without issue. The next step was to remove the Cisco vem VIB from the host in preparation for upgrade. esxcli software vib Continue Reading
CommVault v10 SP14 – Issue with Synthetic Full Backups
I recently upgraded my CommCell from v10 SP13 to SP14. As usual, the upgrade was easy. Centrally deployed, no issues. The next set of scheduled fulls kicked off a few days later, and soon after there appeared to be an issue with Synthetic Full backups. In the Job Controller they Continue Reading