Year: 2010

vCenter 4.0/4.1 VUM SSL Certificate How-To

Update 2/11/2011: VMware has re-published the article and limited the applicability to 4.1 U1 (released 2/10/2011), since it directs you to use the new VMware Update Manager Utility. The new procedure is easier to follow and uses a new tool that makes it debut in 4.1 U1. However, IMHO, it's...

XenDesktop 5.0: Tips for a smooth installation

Last week Citrix XenDesktop 5.0 was released, which I was eagerly anticipating since XD 4.0 had a number of warts which made it unusable for the environment I support. XD5 was supposed to fix all of the show stoppers, so the day it was released I downloaded the HUGE 18GB...

Free Veeam licenses for the Holidays

Veeam is offering free, permanent, licenses for Backup and Replication v5 and Veeam Monitor Plus with Business View. These are NFR (not for resale) licenses, and limited to two sockets. But it's great for a home lab, demo, training, etc. I don't know how long the deal is good for,...

Two-Factor Authentication for Exchange 2010 is now possible

Back in 2009 I wrote a blog about the possibility of Microsoft supporting two-factor or multi-factor authentication for some Exchange services. For organizations which require high security, such as the DoD, allowing external access to email requires additional protection. With Exchange 2007 and prior versions there was no easy way...

3PAR VAAI Upgrade is cakewalk

For those of you using vSphere 4.1, one of the cool new features is VAAI support. What is VAAI? VAAI is a deep level of integration between select storage arrays and the ESX kernel. The three VAAI functions released in 4.1 are:•Atomic Test & Set (ATS), which is used during...

Build a home ESX 4.x Server for $1,000

Update: I came up with a new parts list based on Sandy Bridge parts. You can check it out here.Currently I dual-boot my home computer with ESXi 4.1, but that's getting old. Yes, you can run ESXi 4.1 inside of VMware Workstation 7.1 (and I do), but you can't run...

Change your VMware VM UUIDs to be Unique

UUID (Universally Unique IDentifier) are also known as GUIDs (Globally Unique IDentifier). A UUID is 128 bits long, and can guarantee uniqueness across space and time. Why do I care about UUIDs? Well VMware attempts to assign a unique UUID to every VM. Generally they succeed, but sometimes you can end...

Alka-Seltzer for your Windows Token Bloat

As most Windows administrators know when you logon to any system locally or remotely Windows generates a token that contains a list of security identifiers of all the groups the user belongs to. In large environments or where you have implemented granular role-based security, top-tier users could be a member...

SYSPREP resetting your renamed Administrator and Guest accounts?

Lately I've been working on our Server 2008 R2 vSphere 4.1 template and ran into an interesting issue. During the template build process we rename the Administrator and Guest accounts, to comply with best practices. However, after vCenter executed the customization specification the accounts got reset back to Administrator and Guest....

vSphere 4.1 Performance Best Practices

With the release of ESX 4.1 and vCenter 4.1, VMware has greatly increased the performance of vCenter. I accidentally stumbled upon this VMware document called VMware vCenter Server Performance and Best Practices.It's a great read covering benchmark performance differences between vCenter 4.0 and vCenter 4.1, plus a lot of tips...

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