So all of us have Windows boxes in our shops that need to be installed, have some apps dropped on them and managed, even if we don’t really want them. That install process, has gotten easier over time with templates and what not, however, you still need to build that golden image, etc. Well, for
-> Continue reading Ninite.com – The Best Windows Tool You Aren’t Using
We’ll skip the reason you need tools installed. We’ll also skip a bit on the other ways to do this in PowerCLI. Rather, we’ll bring you a way to do this in Orchestrator. Note: If you’re not using vCO, you should be. Why? I covered that here. Additionally, there are some excellent vCO resources here.
-> Continue reading Automation 101 – VMware Tools with Orchestrator
The RPM version of the VMware tools installer for Linux guests seems to have gone the way of the dinosaur. In addition, the tools ISO for Linux has been provided as it’s own download, that is hidden away on the ESX or ESXi download pages, rather than the “Tools and Drivers” page. Not sure why,
-> Continue reading VMware Tools ISO for Linux Guests
When was the last time you found yourself configuring VMware tools on Linux? Did having to incessantly press enter accepting the defaults drive you nuts too? I think I might be the last one to the game on this, but today I was stumbling through configuring VMware tools on a few Linux VMs. Stumbling, over
-> Continue reading VMware Tools –default!
While going over TA1541 – Cool Little Things Marketing Did Not Tell You About vSphere 4.0 from this years VMworld, and came across this gem, a service console tool, that’s been there since ESX 3.5, and will report on all sorts of SCSI statistics. [root@esxServerOfDoom root]# /usr/lib/vmware/bin/vscsiStats -? /usr/lib/vmware/bin/vscsiStats: invalid option — ? VscsiStats
-> Continue reading Best Tools You Didn’t Know You Needed – vscsiStats
Saving one of the best for last. This tool is every bit as awesome as any of the other tools listed this week, and then some. Why? What other tool can you point at your vCenter and with a few clicks, generate a Visio. Yeah, that’s right, virtual infrastructure documentation in a few clicks. It
-> Continue reading The Best Tools You Didn’t Know You Needed – The VESI
I’ve covered this one before, but it is so awesome it needs to be mentioned twice. It really is that good. What does it do? It latches your vCenter, and will check your clusters for HA/vMotion compatibility, and will let you know what is broken if there is something ‘off’. They have several videos and
-> Continue reading The Best Tools You Didn’t Know You Needed – OpsCheck
This one goes without saying. Veeam’s Fast SCP is another file copy tool, but designed specifically to SCP or securely copy files, and do it very fast. Consider pulling this down and giving it a shot the next time you are going to spend most of an evening or two copying a few TB of
-> Continue reading The Best Tools You Didn’t Know You Needed – FastSCP
The next up in the list of tools I’ve found essential to managing a virtual environment is TeraCopy. TeraCopy is not actually strictly a virtualization tool, but it will make your life as an administrator much easier. So what does TeraCopy do? It copies files from one location in windows to another… really REALLY fast.
-> Continue reading The Best Tools You Didn’t Know You Needed – TeraCopy
This begins a few posts on the topic of “Tools You Didn’t Know You Needed”. What qualifies as one of these tools? Well… anything that you’ve found really useful for managing VMs or your virtual infrastructure, and is something every administrator should have in their tool box. Starting things off, is Gparted. Gparted is an
-> Continue reading The Best Tools You Didn’t Know You Needed – Gparted
Photo by michelphoto53 I Calm across the “Must-have VMware infrastructure plug-ins” post earlier today and got to thinking what plug-ins I’d recommend. Turns out, that my recommendations would not differ too much, I consider these Must Haves: – Update Manager (included) – Storage VMotion. From Andrew at H9Labs – PowerGUI. This may not be for
-> Continue reading Plug It In, Plug It In! – vCenter Client Plug-ins You Should Be Using
Still cleaning out my feed reader after having slacked for a few days, and came across this gem on Yellow-Bricks: I’ll have to give this a test shortly to see how well it performs. Woot!
This last weekend, the WordPress install on the site wasn’t the only thing that got an upgrade. The Professional VMware ‘offices’ got an upgrade as well. I’ve upgraded from a monolithic old wooden eyesore of a desk to a larger, aluminum & glass setup, that I think is just stylin. Take a look: Enough
-> Continue reading Upgrades! My Office, Your VMware Tools.