Cybersylum - Chipping away at the things holding us back in our virtualization journey...

Central Ohio VMUG – April 2021 Meeting

byArron King 04.16.2021 VMUG

The Central Ohio VMware Users Group will meet virtually on April 27th, 2021 from 11am to 1pm

Niels Hagoort (VMware Technical Marketing Architect) will be presenting on What’s New in vSphere 7 Update 2
Morpheus Data will be talking about their product – a powerful self-service engine which provides enterprise agility, control, and efficiency. Quickly enable on-prem private clouds, centralize public cloud access, and orchestrate change with cost analytics, governance policy, and automation

Finding MAC Address of rogue IP on Dell PowerConnect

Welcome to the inaugural post in my Before I Forget series. I”ll be using this category to document bits of knowledge that I don’t want to lose. We all perform steps that are only needed once in a while; but when you need them – you really need them! I know they will help me. I hope they benefit others as well…

Rogue IP Addresses can mess up the day

In this case, I figured out how to find the MAC Address of an errant device on my network using it’s IP Address. My Homelab uses a Dell PowerConnect 6248 at it’s core. It is an older; but quite serviceable switch.

I received an alert the other day that one of my Wireless APs had gone offline. I went through a few troubleshooting steps and found that while I could ping it’s statically assigned IP – it did not show up in the Ubiquiti management console. I restarted the device but it did not resolve the issue.

Obviously something was responding on that IP Address; but I didn’t know what it was. This particular subnet was wired-only, so I knew I could track it down. A seasoned network engineer I am not; but was able to figure it out within a few minutes.

Continue reading “Finding MAC Address of rogue IP on Dell PowerConnect”

Update the External URL when you replace the Horizon Connection Server Certificate

byArron King 01.18.2021 Horizon View

I have finally setup a certificate authority in my lab and am working on replacing self-signed certs. This week I was working on my Horizon Connection server.

When you make changes to the SSL Certificate on your Horizon Connection Server(s), you may see an error message similar to this:

Server's certificate subject name does not match the server's External URL.  Server's certificate is not trusted.

When you first install the Connection Server, it uses the hostname of the server as the “External URL”. If this does not match the URL you will publish for your users, a small change needs to be made in the configuration of the Connection Server.

Continue reading “Update the External URL when you replace the Horizon Connection Server Certificate”

vToolbelt – November 2020

byArron King 11.12.2020 vToolBelt

Carbon Black Cloud Workload Essentials has a free trial through April 2021. You can get hands-on with the product and try it out in your environment without obligation. Get more information and sign up at https://www.carbonblack.com/workload-free-trial.

Technical Advisories

vCenter Server Internal Certificate Expiration – If your vCenter server (Appliance or Windows) was deployed as 6.5 Update 2 or later, the Security Token Service (STS) signing certificate may have a 2-year validity period. Depending on when your vCenter was deployed, this may be approaching that expiration date. There is no vCenter Alarm for this condition. I highly recommend you take a few minutes and check your environment and proactively replace the certificate if needed.

KB 79248: Simple ways to check the STS certificate expiration date
KB 76719: Scripted/automated method to replace STS certificate

Continue reading “vToolbelt – November 2020”

vToolbelt – October 2020

byArron King 10.12.2020 vToolBelt

Hello and welcome to fall… I think. Maybe next week. Ohio weather is so unpredictable. Anyway a short newsletter this month A few on-line events you may be interested in as well as a free trial of Carbon Black.

Free Training Resources – Offer extended!
For the past few months I have mentioned that VMware was offering a complimentary 6-month Digital Learning subscription to the Premium edition of the VMware Learning zone. Due to popular demand, this offer has been extended to a full year. You must enroll by October 31st. You can learn more about this free offering and register here.

Technical Advisories

Are you managing Android devices with Workspace ONE Unified Endpoint Management? There are some changes regarding Workspace ONE UEM & Android Enterprise coming in November 2020 you will want to review.

Continue reading “vToolbelt – October 2020”

vToolbelt – September 2020

byArron King 09.18.2020 vToolBelt

Hello and Happy Friday! A few updates about VMworld are below. If you haven’t been before this is a great opportunity to see what kind of information you can learn. This year it will be virtual. The best part is that you can attend VMworld for free!

Free Training Resources
VMware is offering a complimentary 6-month Digital Learning subscription to the Premium edition of the VMware Learning zone. You must register for this prior to November 6, 2020. You can learn more about this free offering and register here.

Upcoming Events

VMworld 2020
Date: September 29th

VMworld has gone virtual for 2020!

Free Pass – available to EVERYONE!
Full Conference Attendee – $299 USD. (There will be a limited number of full conference passes available, register early to secure your seat!)

Continue reading “vToolbelt – September 2020”

Horizon View 7.12 Console login failure with Windows Server Core

byArron King 09.13.2020 Home Lab Horizon View

Recently I started working with a new customer who is migrating to VMware Horizon View. It has been a while since I have done much with Horizon so I thought setting it up in my lab would help me get up to speed.

I decided to install Horizon 7.12, setup a few desktop pools and learn about Instant Clones with an eye to upgrading to Horizon 8 (aka Horizon 2006 as it prefers to be known) in the near future. I had been using Windows Server 2012 in my lab as those were the latest licenses I was able to get from my Microsoft Technet subscription before they ended that program. Horizon 2006 does not support Windows Server 2012 so I had to make an early choice. Do I run 2012 now, and upgrade it later or jump to a newer version now?

Lab Headaches can turn into knowledge

I decided to try Windows 2016 Server Core for my connection server. I have always been pretty comfortable at command line; and wanted to try out Windows Server Core. I have to admit it was a bit “different” not have any of the familiar GUI interfaces. Some of the smallest things (ahem configuring network stack) took me a bit and forced me to learn something new. This is a good thing – and why it is a good idea to get in the lab often.

Continue reading “Horizon View 7.12 Console login failure with Windows Server Core”

vToolbelt – August 2020

byArron King 08.12.2020 vToolBelt

Upcoming Events

Cincinnati VMUG/UserCON 2020
Date: August 27th

VMUG Virtual UserCon: A Virtual Environment like Never Before!
At the St. Louis and Cincinnati VMUG VIRTUAL UserCon, you will not only be surrounded by people who can make an impact on your day-to-day projects and future career, but in a virtual environment like never before. VMUG UserCons are created by VMware users for VMware users, so don’t miss this opportunity to talk with experts and peers in your area (yes in this virtual environment you can actually talk)!I

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vToolbelt – June 2020

byArron King 06.09.2020 vToolBelt

Hello – I hope this finds you well and your summer off to a positive start. There are a lot of VMware events coming up! They are all on-line and free – make sure you review the list to see what might be interesting to you!

We will start off with two very important pieces of good news

The End of General Support date for vCenter Server & ESXi 6.7 has been extended to October 15, 2022. Previously, 6.7 shared the same end date as version 6.5 (November 15, 2021).

VMware is offering a complimentary 6-month Digital Learning subscription to the Premium edition of the VMware Learning zone. You must register for this prior to November 6, 2020. You can learn more about this free offering and register here.

Upcoming Events

Cleveland Virtual VMUG – Unlock the Power of vSAN Storage Policies
Date: June 18th
Time: 4:30PM Eastern

The Cleveland VMUG will host a discussion on vSAN policy options and their implications with regard to performance and operations. Latency, throughput, rebuild times for failed drives- all these things are subject to the decisions made about policies applied to objects through SPBM. Learn how to optimize your vSAN policies to make the most of your software-defined storage.

Guest Speaker:
Josh Fidel – Principal Solutions Architect – Advizex

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vToolbelt – May 2020

byArron King 05.28.2020 vToolBelt

I hope finds you well! If you get a minute, remind me what season it is. My house experienced killing vToolbelt - May 2020 - VMware Virtualization news you can use! frost and 70+ degree weather within a few days of each other. I am sure many of you felt it as well. I can’t tell if we are in Ohio or Florida…

Upcoming Events

vSAN 7.0 and the Software Defined Data Center
Date: June 2nd
Time: 9am Eastern

This virtual event will review vSAN 7.0 – the cornerstone of the Software Defined Data Center. In this session we will do an overview of vSAN for those who need a refresher, delve into the new features that were released then dive into a live demo of vSAN where we will show the power of Hyper Converged Infrastructure and how it is transforming the modern data center. We look forward to seeing you in this interactive session!

Guest Speaker:
Max Abelardo – VMware Systems Engineer

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