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
CommVault – Upgrade DDB to Transactional Mode
The deduplication databases (DDB) are arguably the most important component in an efficient and fast CommVault environment. If you’ve ever had a Media Agent fail unexpectedly before the DDB’s were able to gracefully shutdown, you’d be well aware the the restore and rebuild times can be very long. In Version 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
AWS Solutions Architect Associate: My exam experience.
Happy Easter ! I passed the AWS Solutions Architect Associate exam earlier this month and decided I’d share some thoughts on the exam experience. Preparation I began planning for this certification at the start of this year, based on the fact I had used various AWS services in various jobs 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
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
EMC VPLEX, RecoverPoint Warning: Failed to retrieve VPLEX management view
Quick post with a quick VPLEX/RecoverPoint fix. (CL & EX) During some regular checking, I noticed that a warning had crept into the VPLEX Management console; Quick cluster check showed there were no apparent errors; Checking RecoverPoint also showed a warning; There was no issues found, data was Continue Reading