After having lots of fun in the vExpert Slack channel last evening with everyone waiting for the vExpert 2018 announcements I decided to had to bed not too late. This morning I woke up with this in my inbox:
So this is my third year in a row that I have been awarded VMware vExpert. Those three years have been a thrill ride. I started blogging mid 2016 after doing my first (and somewhat failed) vmug presentation at the Dutch VMUG. Things really picked up after I was awarded my 1st vExpert in the 2nd batch of 2016, my blog started to get more views, I created more content and I found my home in a community that simply rules: the vCommunity!
While sometimes harsh words are spoken my general feeling of the vCommunity is one of camaraderie. No question is too stupid, no solution is to weird, there are always people willing to help you with whatever is going on. This is not only true for the vExpert slack channels but also those of Nutanix, VMware Code, IOPros and last but not least the vExpertEUC channel. Most of the times things are very serious but every now and then the channels buzz with that Friday afternoon feeling where no-one is safe for jokes. When going to events meeting up with all of these people is always fun. If it is at a vmug, VMworld or EUCtechcon there’s almost almost immediate chemistry between people who just enjoy sharing and caring.
So I want to thank all of the vCommunity that have made this possible for me and I look forward to speaking to you whether it’s in person, twitter, slack or some webex. Without all of you this wouldn’t have been half as much fun!!
In two weeks time I will be presenting at the Dutch VMUG UserCon, the biggest VMUG in the world! For the 3rd consecutive time I will be taking the stage by storm. My first try, about problems I encountered in the field, was a disaster but I learned lots and got good feedback from lots of people including my very good friend Hans Kraaijeveld. The second year I decided to get Hans on stage as well because he already thought he knew it all so we presented about our favorite flings for Horizon View last year. I repeated that presentation on my own at the German VMUG later that year where I had a bit more time so I could actually show the tools instead of clicking trough a powerpoint like we had to do in in the 20 minutes we had in The Netherlands.
This year I will be on my own again on stage talking about PowerCLI & Horizon View. For the regulars on that will certainly not come as a surprise. Lots of it will be pre-recorded demo’s since I don’t want to bore the people with ten minutes of typing errors. Sadly I am placed at the end of the day so I hope the audience will not be too tired. I have competition from someone called Duncan Epping, you might have heard of him. Looking at the agenda it’s a star studded day anyhow so it’s hard getting a slot without very good competition.
So do I see you at the dutch vmug? Most of the presentations will be in dutch but we can still have fun though!
It’s already March 1st and that gives me just a bit over 2,5 weeks to prepare for my session at the Dutch VMUG Usercon, the biggest in the world! ALso it has a Hackathon this year the day before + lots of VMware R&D sessions to choose from and last but not least a VCDX workshop. But back to flings, there have been three updated an no new flings this month. First there is almost as always the vSphere HTML5 Web Client. Further both DRS Lens and the Cross vCenter VM Mobility – CLI flings have received updates. Also a special mention for a fling that has gone GA: PowerCLI Core is now embedded in PowerCLI 10.0.0 that was released yesterday!!
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Cross vCenter VM Mobility – CLI
Need to move workloads between vCenter’s that are linked or not linked? This fling will help you doing that from the commandline.
Changelog
Version 1.5
Added support to choose destination vm folder / destination storage pod (storage drs)
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DRS Lens
The DRS Lens fling has been created to give it’s user insight in why DRS migrations take place. It provides information on vMotions, Cluster Balance and more.
Changelog
Version 1.2
Added support for archiving monitored data
Added vCenter level summary page, to get summary of clusters and archives
Fixed Bugs reported in v1.1
UI enhancements
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vSphere HTML5 Web Client
Yes this fling also needs an introduction but what else can I say that this is the latest and greatest in managing your vCenter?
Changelog
Fling 3.34 – Build 7758187
New Features
Distributed switch topology diagram
Batch creation of VMkernel network adapters on a distributed port group
Assign License action on the License Assets tabs
Notification message for expiring VC licenses
Edit vApp settings
Enable and edit vApp options on a VM
Move networks and distributed switches to network folders
It’s already a couple of weeks ago that the pull request was merged but I managed to build a couple of new functions for the vmware.hv.helper module. Besides these I am also always looking for new functions to add and since I keep forgetting them I create a project on my own fork of the PowerCLI-Example-Scripts. That can be found here: https://github.com/Magneet/PowerCLI-Example-Scripts/projects/1 so if you have any requests or good ideas for functions please send them my way or add them yourself off course 🙂
This was recently done after my pr’s or is still open to be merged:
New functions
reset-hvmachine
Resets machines
get-hvlocalsession
Gets all sessions for the local pod
get-hvglobalsession
Gets all global sessions + the sessions directly to the local pod
Changed functions
get-hventitlement
had some issues with groups
add-hvdesktop & add-hvrdsserver
removed the displaying of the vcentervm id that was added to the pool
PR done, not yet merged!
Removed Functions
get-hvpodsession
this only got a sessioncount so hardly any usefull data
Not a technical post this time but a short one about creativity. Do you know that feeling that there’s an awesome idea in your head brewing for a post but that you somehow can’t get yourself going to write it up? I used to have this when writing reviews for fok.nl and still do sometimes when writing blogs on this site. While most of the times setting myself to it will get me in the right mindset that doesn’t always help. Sometimes there’s just too much noise around in my house or all kinds of distractions around the house (adhd anyone?). Most of the times it’s my kids watching something and they just can’t sit still on their chairs (again: adhd). Trying to get them quiet is sheer impossible and noise cancelling headphones will allow just enough sound trough for them to still be annoying.
The one thing that almost always gets me going is music! And I don’t even need that noise cancelling headset for that, just having a tune in my head or playing it on my phone can be enough. Lately one of my favorites have been Alestorm but other bands have been able to get me on the creative track. Queen, Pink Floyd, Metallica, Epica or DJ Tiesto are some of the other names I have had success with in the past. The question always is what band/artist I need to pick to get me going, this totally depends on how I am feeling but the first that pops into my head to play mostly is ok.
My current favorite to get me going (and that inspired me to this short post):
So the big question is: What get’s you in the right mood for creativity?
DoD Security Technical Implementation Guide(STIG) ESXi VIB
This one is for the people who have to implement a very high security on their vSphere environment. Please read the changelog, no STIG has been released yet for vSphere 6.5! Since it’s a lesser updated one I will give you the complete description from the fling site:
The DoD Security Technical Implementation Guide (‘STIG’) ESXi VIB is a Fling that provides a custom VMware-signed ESXi vSphere Installation Bundle (‘VIB’) to assist in remediating Defense Information Systems Agency STIG controls for ESXi. This VIB has been developed to help customers rapidly implement the more challenging aspects of the vSphere STIG. These include the fact that installation is time consuming and must be done manually on the ESXi hosts. In certain cases, it may require complex scripting, or even development of an in-house VIB that would not be officially digitally signed by VMware (and therefore would not be deployed as a normal patch would). The need for a VMware-signed VIB is due to the system level files that are to be replaced. These files cannot be modified at a community supported acceptance level. The use of the VMware-signed STIG VIB provides customers the following benefits:
The ability to use vSphere Update Manager (‘VUM’) to quickly deploy the VIB to ESXi hosts (you cannot do this with a customer created VIB)
The ability to use VUM to quickly check if all ESXi hosts have the STIG VIB installed and therefore are also in compliance
No need to manually replace and copy files directly on each ESXi host in your environment
No need to create complex shell scripts that run each time ESXi boots to re-apply settings
Changelog
Update January 2018
Added 6.5 STIG VIB to the downloads section. **Please note this is not based on a DISA STIG as a 6.5 STIG has not been released**
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VMware OS Optimization Tool
No need to say a lot about this fling. If you need to optimize a windows system this has been the goto tool for years.
Changelog
January 4, 2018
Issue fix: Can not access public templates
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Blockchain on vSphere
Want to build & test blockchain applications? This might be a handy tool in your toolbox for that.
Changelog
Jan 15 2018, BoV 1.1
Designed to run on PKS(Pivotal Container Services), and validated in PKS Beta
Integrate Blockchain Explorer into BoV which makes it easier to view/monitor peers, transactions, etc
Enhance BoV to support saving blocks and channel data to persistent volume
Optimize the installation process
Provide a default channel for blockchain applications
Update Fabric to 1.0.5
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HCIBench
Specially build to benchmark VSAN clusters but can be used to test any HCI.
Changelog
Version 1.6.5.2
Added case comparisons by generating an XLS file for each test folder
Fixed bug when there’s white space in datastore name or test name
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Horizon Toolbox
Missing anything in the (crappy) Horizon? There is a chance that it might be in this tool!
Changelog
2018 Jan 18
Horizon 7.4 support
Some bug fixes
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Desktop Watermark
Do you want to be sure one of your desktops is used for auditing. With this tool you can set an (in)visible watermark.
Changelog
Build 1127
This build is signed now.
Addition
Password protection for the configuration & uninstallation
was supposed to be added in the previous release as well so might be a copy/paste error
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vSphere HTML5 Web Client
Do I really need to add a description to this one? There is a html5 client build into vSphere these days but this version is updated very often and is becoming more and more on par with the (yuck) flash client.
Changelog
Fling 3.33 – Build 7616394
New Features
Support for PCI and Shared PCI devices for a VM
Create vApp wizard
Clone vApp wizard
vApp move to Host & Cluster
Duplicate a VM customization specification to another VC and with custom name/description
Ability to edit VM Advanced configurations in Edit Settings of the VM
Change the shortcuts for Power Operations in VMware tools section in the Edit Settings of the VM
Change the maximum concurrent VMRC sessions for a VM in the Edit Settings
Bug Fixes
Can add an existing hard disk in Edit Settings for VM residing on datastore cluster
Known Issues
Creation of child vApp wizard is not working – the workaround is to create a child vApp as separate vApp and use move to operation to move it under the parent one.
Fling 3.32 – Build 7496117
New Features
vApp power operations
vApp move to operation to folder operation
vApp rename operation
vApp delete operation
vApp export to OVF template
Improvements
vApp related VMs tab, datastore tab and networking
2018 already proved to become an awesome year for me. I became Nutanix Technology Champion again for 2018 and I also decided to change employers. While Detron has been a great employer for over three years it was time to change. My ambitions for what I wanted to do proved to be hard for them to match in jobs to do. I do have to thank them though for the great support I had in these years in which I started blogging, public speaking and managed to enter several community programs like VMware vExpert, Nutanix Technology Champion and more recently the newly announced Liquidware Tech Insiders started by former colleague and Liquidware Pre-sales Director Northern Europe Bas van Kaam.
Starting February first I will be joining TenICT in the Netherlands as VMware Consultant. This company was recently nominated as Most promising Partner of the year for The Netherlands by VMware. They also recently signed a VMware PSO contract so will be taking on PSO jobs as well in the near future. In short it looks like it’s going to be an awesome 2018.
Again I want to thank Detron for the three great years I had with them and I will definitely miss the people and the fun we had!
While I already finished my first blogpost of the year I decided it was time for me to write another one. The kind that I usually avoid like a plague to write: a post looking back at 2017 and forward to 2018. For me these kinds of posts are on the same level as stupid lists: I frigging always hated creating and evaded them! Essentially though my monthly flings posts are lists so why wouldn’t I write a the looking back & forward posts as well?
2017
Presenting
This mentality is exactly something what I started doing in 2016 and certainly continued in 2017: challenging myself to new things. The presenting bit I had already introduced myself to in 2016 but last year I also did my first presentation at a VMUG not in my own country but I travelled to Germany for their UserCon to present three of my favorite VMware flings. After the short vBrownbag at VMworld US in 2016 this was only my second time presenting in English. It also was my first time to exactly hit the spot timewise in the 30-minute timeslot I had. Luckily the base for the presentation was good since I had done it at the Dutch VMUG UserCon (sorry it’s in Dutch) a couple of months earlier together with my good friend Hans Kraaijeveld. I had ten extra minutes though so instead of showing the slide deck I decided to show the tools instead of boring screenshots. Next time I just need to improve on some things and make a script on beforehand (thank you Johan for the Feedback) on what to do, but since I decided to change this the evening before in my hotel room preparation was suboptimal.
Besides the vmug’s I also managed to find me a spot on the vBrownbag schedule for VMworld Europe. I can’t really say that my presentation was a success, I was tired and just didn’t get into the proper flow for it. I did pick up some extra essential experience doing it though. Beside my own presentation I also had lots of fun on the vExpert daily broadcast.
Community
In 2017, I have started being more active on Reddit & VMTN. Specially reddit can be a flamewar every now and then but there are very decent topics and replies as well. On vmtn it’s really hit and miss about quality, some are decent posts but lots also prove that the ts (topicstarter) totally didn’t do their homework or have had any experience with the product they are trying to use.
The most fun community wise I had at the VMware Code Hackathon at VMworld EU. While our project didn’t go smoothly we had lots of fun and everyone learned at least a couple of things. Next time I will just make sure we have our own infrastructure available to us. And those hippie shirts simply rule.
VMworld itself was an awesome community event for me as well. While I still visited some sessions the hanging around with other vExperts and bloggers made it again an awesome event for me. At the beginning of November, I also visited the Nutanix .Next event and while there where less people over there that I knew I made some friends right away (or not Dugi?) and kept having fun with those selfies after I got some comments on looking grumpy at the first one. It was also good to finally meet some of the other NTC’s.
Events
2017 was a year with lots of awesome events for me. I visited not only the Dutch and German VMUG but also managed to squeeze the Belgium VMUG in my schedule was well. Then again VMworld EU and Nutanix .Next and in December I also visited the inaugural Dutch vEUC Techcon that had lots of great content.
Learning
In the learning zone, I managed more then I planned for in the beginning of 2017. I had agreed with my manager that it would be a quiet year for me an oh boy I did not keep myself to that agreement. First, there was the Certification ME work I did and got the certifications for: vcp-dcv 6.5, vcap7-dtm design and the vca-dbt exam. Ok this is not learning and doing the exam but by creating and checking the questions one can learn just as much in my opinion.
I did two actual exams in 2017: vcp7-dtm and vcap6-dtm deploy. The first one I passed and the 2nd one I sadly failed on, since it was my first vcap deploy I didn’t expect anything else and overall it was a good experience in preparing for the next one. Something certainly needed is an HD monitor and proper amounts of coffee in advance because the you need to stay sharp and time will be an issue.
As side projects in the learning department I also was active as content checker for three Packt videos and one book:
Videos
Learning VMware App Volumes
Designing and Deploying VMware Horizon View 7 and
Managing a Horizon 7 environment
Book
Mastering vSphere 6.5
Again, I learned a lot by working at these projects but they are very time intensive so I don’t know how eager I would be for coming projects.
2018
So, what am I expecting for 2018 personally? Hopefully I will be allowed again to speak at the Dutch VMUG Usercon, I proposed one personal session in the CfP and one session together with Hans Kraaijeveld. Also, I would love to extend my personal session and build it out to a VMworld quality and be able to deliver it there as well. Besides VMworld I would like to visit the BE vmug and Nutanix .Next also again this year.
In the community, I want to keep at least as active since my Nutanix NTC is already extended to 2018 and hopefully I will also receive vExpert again in 2018. The vExpert & NutanixNTC slack channels simply rock. Both have awesome vibes with lots of people always eager to help you with any questions you ask.
I only have one real learning goal so far for 2018 and that is to pass the vcap7-dtm deploy exam. Sadly, it hasn’t been released yet but that doesn’t say I can’t prepare for it either. My ultimate goal would be to become vcdx but that’s something I will only start working on this year, don’t expect me to submit soon. As something for fun, I might try my hands on the nsx certifications even though I am not a networking person or maybe something from Amazon since a lot of VMware admins seem to be heading that way as well.
For the rest, I have only this to add: Happy New Year and have an awesome 2018!
The first Fling is the brand new Cross vCenter Workload Migration Utility, previously one had to go command line to move VMs across vCenter servers but now the less CLI inclined people (or lazy people like me sometimes) can do it via a gui. This can be done within the same SSO domain but also across SSO domains. WIlliam Lam also wrote a good post about it.
Key Features
Completely UI-driven workflow for VM migration
Provides REST API for managing migration operations
Works with vCenter not a part of the same SSO domain
Support for batch migration of multiple VMs in parallel
Supports both live as well as cold migration of VMs
Performs storage vMotion, not requiring shared storage
Flexible network mappings between source and destination sites
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Simple Natural Language Processing for iOS
To be honest: i have no clue what Simple Natural Language Processing for iOS is for, looks like something to use in your code to talk to the voice processing in iOS without cost and privacy concerns for using cloud based solutions.
Simple Natural Language Processing for iOS provides developers with a convenient framework for integrating Natural Language Processing (NLP) into their iOS Apps. When the developer provides a set of training phrases, Simple NLP will use Naïve Bayes Classification to predict the intent of an unfamiliar phrase and extract parameters such as a person’s name and dates.
While numerous cloud based solutions already exist to provide similar functionality, they may have associated cost and privacy concerns. With Simple NLP for iOS, your data won’t be sent to a server or cloud service for prediction. All NLP functionality is constrained to the device and processed natively.
We hope that you will find this Fling easy to use and beneficial to your project.
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VMware OS Optimization Tool
Just a short update for the OSOT this month, more tools have been coming out that can do this but this one is stall my favorite OS Optimizer.
Changelog
December 14, 2017
Template update. Detailed change log for each template is in the online version of each template (accessed from Public Templates tab)
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App Volumes Backup Utility
As far as I know this is still the only way to backup those Appstacks and writable volumes and using a fling for that might be a risk.
Changelog
Version 2.0
Updated to use only PowerCLI to connect to vCenter/vSphere. Previous versions used the vSphere SOAP API along with PowerCLI which locked the application to a specific version of PowerCLI. Versions 2.0 and later of this application will work with any version of PowerCLI (6.0 and later). This change improves the speed of enumerating vCenter items
Added additional checks for PowerCLI and PowerShell
Additional optimizations and minor bug fixes
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vSphere HTML5 Web Client
Like always the HTML5 Web Client received multiple updates, two to be exactly in december.
Changelog
Fling 3.31 – Build 7343373
New Features
Performance charts counter selection can be persisted. The counter selection are persisted per object type. The data is persisted in browser local storage.
Bug Fixes
Resume fault tolerance in manual DRS cluster will show DRS recommendations.
By now we should all be using the embedded host Client unless you are forced by greater powers to run on some ancient version of ESXi.
Version 1.24.0 build 7119706 (Fling 19) – November 13, 2017
Minor features and bugfixes
GeneralFix failure to deploy OVF/OVA image with disks attached to multiple disk controllers
Address race condition when adding new Network Adapter to virtual machine
Allow datastore browser to browse VVOL datastores
Address timeout issue in datastore browser when client receives unknown datatypes from host
Address issue disabling autostart for a VM
Allow downloading of flat VMDK files in datastore browser
Show the correct VMware Tools version string in VM summary
Show pager in VM editor when VM has many hard disks
Support OVF properties with pre-defined values, showing dropdowns
Allow modifications of root user’s permissions
Support for selecting dependent PCI devices when enabling passthrough
Other minor bug fixes
vSphere HTML5 Web Client
Like always the HTML5 Web Client received multiple updates in November so the changelog is rather long.
Fling 3.29 – Build 7157335
New Features
Configure traffic filtering and marking rules on distributed port groups
Export and import distributed switches and distributed port groups
Improvements
Configure the policies of distributed port groups inside the New Distributed Port Group wizard
Bug Fixes
Fixed an error when trying to edit the settings of VMs with failed installation or update of the VM tools
Fling 3.28 – Build 7110681
New Features
Configure advanced CPU Identification Mask
Select PVRDMA adapter type for a VM network
Improvements
Thanks to the fling users who gave the steps to replace the certificates for FAMI UI running at port 5490, added these instructions to v4 of “Create a new certificate for a HTML5 client fling” document
Bug Fixes
Licensing views should be visible for 6.0 VC/PSCs
Fling 3.27 – Build 7055108
New Features
Popout the Datastore File browser
License Details
View License VC assets (Read-only)
Improvements
Set license name in the Add License workflow
Known Issues
License UI might not work against 6.0 VCs, in particular Windows VCs/PSCs.
If you see error in the vSphere Client (HTML5) similar to this – ‘getHostIsAssignLicenseActionAvailable’, then you can resolve this error by following below steps:
If vSphere Client (HTML5) Fling appliance is pointed to a vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA), then you should reregister the fling appliance by logging in to FAMI UI (or by running the config-ui CLI). Refer the instructions document to follow the steps for configuring Fling appliance for VCSA.
If vSphere Client (HTML5) Fling appliance is pointed to a Windows vCenter Server, then reregister by downloading latest server-configure.bat from the Download section of this website. Refer the instructions document to follow the steps for configuring Fling appliance for Windows vCenter Server.
VMFork for pyVmomi
This fling has been around for a while and if you ever wanted to fork your VM’s without having to study PowerCLi then this one is for you. It has a warning that it only supports vSphere 6.0 and 6.5 and no newer releases but hey there are none yet so please use it if you like.
Changelog
Version 1.0.3
Fixed a bug that prevented CreateChildSpec from being referenced in versions of 6.5 of pyVmomi
Updated the requirement to include pyVmomi 6.5 only, up from 6.0, due to a dependency issue
Version 1.0.2
Bug fixes & Improvements
Desktop Watermark
Want to make sure screenshots will show that it is your Image being used then the Desktop Watermark fling can be the tool of choice. It can be used for auditing or exhibition purposes or any other way you like. And yes that type in the changelog is a straight copy/paste from the site.
Changelog
Build 1027
Addition
Password protection for the configuration & uninstllation
Cross vCenter VM Mobility – CLI
Ever needed to migrate or clones VM’s form one vCenter to the other while there they are not linked? then the Cross vCenter VM Mobility – CLI might be a good tool in your toolbox.
Changelog
Version 1.4
While migrating multiple vms with destination network option, only one vm used to get migrated.This issue has been fixed.
HCIBench
Need to benchmark a Hyperconverged Infrastructure? VDbench is one of the tools to use and VMware labs create the HCIBench to automate this tool. It received a couple of updates since my last post about it.
Changelog
Version 1.6.5.1
Enhanced IP segment selection
Set open file limit to 4096
Updated vm-tools to the latest version
Bug fixes
Version 1.6.5
Enhanced 95th percentile calculation.
Added Curve and Multi Run calculation.
Added SSH Service validation.
Replaced DHCP Service with Static IP Service.
Added IP conflict check.
Fixed bunch of bugs.
Change the default client VM RAM from 4GB to 8GB
Horizon Toolbox
Being an EUC guy myself this is one of my favorites. The Horizon Toolbox adds some very good tools for servicedesk and operations employees.
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