Previously I deployed a KMS solution within my VMware Home Lab. Everything was working great until I accidentally powered off my entire Home Lab. When I did this several of my VMs were locked, even though I had powered everything back up, and my KMS was up and running. This proved to be a very good learning experience since I was able to learn a lot during my resolution of the issue.
Continue reading “vSphere/vSAN Encryption: Virtual Machine Locked Alarm”
In this blog post, I will show how easy it is to upgrade a PowerProtect Virtual Instance running within VMware. If you have ever administered Avamar before, you know just how painful it can be to upgrade.
In a previous blog post, I stated how to deploy DellEMC PowerProtect. However, once PowerProtect is deployed you must add a workload in order to start protecting data. In this blog post, I will show you the steps required in order to protect VM workloads within VMware.
Continue reading “How to: Protecting Workloads with PowerProtect”
PowerProtect is a Software defined data management software from DellEMC. It comes in two different variants, a hardware appliance with storage and a Virtual edition. The Virtual Edition must be pointed to a Data Domain. This software has been written from the ground up, and mainly competes against Rubrik and Cohesity. PowerProtect uses protection policies to protect assets. This software has been written from the ground up, and appears to have address a lot of the shortcomings that newer backup vendors poke DellEMC for. Personally (my open unofficial opinion), I believe this solution will eventually replace traditional Avamar/Data Domain/IDPA.
Previously, I wrote a blog post on how to configure vSAN/vSphere encryption. This was just the first step of a two step process. The first step, as previously stated, was how to deploy and configure the KMS Keystore. Without the KMS Keystore, encryption can’t occur. However once that is deployed, enabling vSphere/vSAN encryption is as simple as toggling a switch! Check out this post before proceeding.
Encryption: One word that means a lot of different things. Often times it is not understood. Within the last few years, encryption has become not only more prevalent, but required in some instances. There are several different types of encryption: At rest, in flight, etc.
Continue reading “How to: Configuring vSphere/vSAN Encryption”
What’s Skyline?
I’ve had a few people ask me about VMware Skyline, so I thought it would be a good bit to blog on. So, with that said, what is VMware Skyline? Accordingly to VMware Skyline Documentation, VMware Skyline is a proactive support service that provides recommendations for not only vSphere, but NSX, vSAN, vRealize Operations and Horizon.
Well the day is finally here, the day that I can share that I’ve successfully purchased my very own HomeLab! This has been a source of struggle for me, since I’ve always wanted a HomeLab. I entertained and researched various setups, including the Intel NUC. During my search I came across the SuperMicro E300-8D, which supports up to 128GB of RAM. For more information on the E300-8D, check out SuperMicro’s Website. It was the perfect price point and it allowed me to get the most out of my investment. It fit what I was looking for, which was a small footprint server that didn’t require much power. Additionally I wanted something quiet. While some have complained about the noise, I don’t believe it’s an issue with the stock fans, so long that it isn’t located within a sleeping area. The Server is setup in my Home Office. I also wanted to ensure I had plenty of memory so that I wouldn’t have any issues when provisioning a nested ESXi vSAN Lab.
In this short blog post, I want to discuss the differences in VMware’s entry level offerings. The other day I had to reference the VMware datasheet that compared the differences between vSphere Essentials vs vSphere Essentials Plus. Sadly I didn’t know the differences until now since I’ve always been fortunate to be spoiled with the full feature set of Enterprise and/or Enterprise Plus!
Continue reading “Comparison: vSphere Essentials vs Essentials Plus”
This is a story about my journey into Presales. It’s a rather long story describing how I’ve gotten to this point in my career. The intent isn’t to gloat, but rather paint a picture for those who are also looking to get into Presales. In my opinion, Presales is the pinnacle of IT Careers. This is a rather long read, but a story I believe is worth telling. Throughout my career in IT, I’ve had the opportunity to work with some amazing individuals, as well as great organizations who really cared for their employees. This process has been a journey to say the least.
TheVirtualBoi 