Changed Block Tracking (CBT) is a great feature introduced in ESXi 4.0, that effectively brought incremental backup technology to our virtual machines. Third parties were able to leverage this so backups would only require the processing of blocks that have changed rather than all blocks. This saved inordinate amounts of time, Continue Reading
PowerCLI
EMC Recoverpoint: Automating Cluster Configuration backups
An important (but often neglected) part of any Recoverpoint deployment is to ensure you have regular backups of your cluster configuration. Important for DR, it also serves as a useful reference point for configuration forensics (What changed and when) There are multiple ways to do this, however my preference is to Continue Reading
vSphere – “Another task is already in progress..” fix with esxcli
I recently had the ‘pleasure’ of an unresponsive vm that had basically turned into a ZOMBIE ! It could not be restarted, edited, snapshot’d and was of course, unresponsive from an OS perspective (No RDP, ping or comms just totally off the air) Any attempted operation from the vSphere client returned Continue Reading
PowerCLI for basic vCenter/ESXi config management
Many admins use Host Profiles, vCM, vCOPS and the like to ensure element compliance within their VI inventory. While these can be fine solutions, many companies do not have the luxury of owning these products. In many cases the targeted use of powerCLI commands across your environment can help to Continue Reading
vSphere PowerCLI – Snapshot handling
Snapshots are cool. We all use them, we all love them. But they can be tedious to manage, and this can lead to them causing issues. Take some care to manage them proactively so they don’t become a monkey on your back. I’ve grown rather fond of managing snapshot functions Continue Reading