Technology – Page 10 – Gabbs' Random Thoughts

Virtual Updates 2022-04-18

vSphere 6.5 & 6.7 – End of General Support
Don’t forget that vSphere 6 is phasing out, and that most people should be moving to vSphere 7.
So far, vSphere 7.0.3 Update 3c seems to be very stable.
vSphere 6.5 & 6.7 End Of General Support ends October 15, 2022
This only leaves just under 7 months to get to vSphere 7.
VMware End of Support pages are here.
Don’t forget that SD cards are no longer recommended by VMware!
That means you need SSD or NVMe for boot drives now!

NIST – Patching Publications
NIST (National Institute of Standards & Technology) has always published content for the public available free of charge.
WIth so many emergency patching recommendations in the past few months, I’ve seen so many environments that have not been patched for years.
I strongly recommend folks create a Maintenance plan for the hardware & software that runs in your datacenter.
Need Guidance on creating a policy?
Try out these 2 NIST downloads yourself:
Guide to Enterprise Patch Management Planning: Preventive Maintenance
…and Improving Enterprise Patching for General IT Systems: Utilizing Existing Tools and Performing Processes in Better Ways

Virtual Updates 2022-04-04

vSphere 6.5 & 6.7 – End of General Support
Don’t forget that vSphere 6 is phasing out, and that most people should be moving to vSphere 7.
So far, vSphere 7.0.3 Update 3c seems to be very stable.
vSphere 6.5 & 6.7 End Of General Support ends October 15, 2022
This only leaves just under 7 months to get to vSphere 7.
VMware End of Support pages are here.
Don’t forget that SD cards are no longer recommended by VMware!
That means you need SSD or NVMe for boot drives now!

vSphere 7.0.3 Update 3d released
Only a short time between Update 3c and update 3d….
Please read the release notes before upgrade….
Still calling out issues with Intel based nice…
vCenter Release Notes are here.
ESXi Release Notes are here.

Virtual Updates 2022-03-21

vSphere 6.5 & 6.7 – End of General Support
Don’t forget that vSphere 6 is phasing out, and that most people should be moving to vSphere 7.
So far, vSphere 7.0.3 Update 3c seems to be very stable.
vSphere 6.5 & 6.7 End Of General Support ends October 15, 2022
This only leaves just under 7 months to get to vSphere 7.
VMware End of Support pages are here.
Don’t forget that SD cards are no longer recommended by VMware!
That means you need SSD or NVMe for boot drives now!

VCDX Mentoring Series
Working your way up the VMware certification ladder?
Interested in what it takes to be a VCDX?
Just want to take in some advanced topics?
I have been part of the VCDX Mentoring Series for a while now, and love watching these.
Lots of insights from 20+ (myself included) VCDX around technical skills, soft skills, time management, time commitment, and many other topics.
Session are always recorded, and made available.
Check out the VCDX Mentoring Series here!

Virtual Updates 2022-03-07

Why Hire a vExpert
Steve Athanas has been VMUG president for quite some time.
He started his blog, and always has some calls for action at the end.
This blog post, is pretty cool, as he gives his insights into why he would hire someone with the vExpert designation.

VMware Tools 12.0 released
Since VMware has a separate release cycle for VMware Tools, this just got released, and will be for your Windows VMs only (you ARE using open-vm-tools for your linux distros, right?).
My first go at this version in the lab seems to be doing OK, but its a lab, and I’ve only had it running for 3 days….
William Lam’s blog post covers a new feature on Container App Discovery with VMware Tools 12.x.
VMware Tools 12.0.0 Release Notes are here.

Virtual Updates 2022-02-21

Will your AD Domain Controllers talk after July 12?
Most probably, so long as you have been keeping up with Windows Updates…
In short, Microsoft is making some changes to the way Domain Controllers communicate amongst themselves.
The Nov 2021, April 2022, and July 2022 Windows Updates are where these settings start to get configured.
A post with some of the details explained & lots of links.

vExperts Announced!
The 2022 VMware vExpert awards were just announced.
This is my eight year in the program!

Virtual Updates 2022-02-07

LockBit Linux-ESXi Locker
I’m getting sick of ransomware….
Trend Micro explains LockBit, and their recommended remediations.

vSphere 7.0.3 – Update 3c
Well, hopefully this is going to be stable, and clean up all the issues.
Available since Jan 28.
Giving it a go in the lab seemed to be good.
If you ARE running ESXi 7.0.3 U3B….Use an ISO to create a Baseline to do the upgrade, called out in VMware KB 86447.
VMware Blog post is here.
ESXi Release Notes are here.
vCenter Release Notes are here.

Virtual Updates 2022-01-24

Windows Servers stuck in reboot?
Another botched update causing us some unplanned work.
Windows Update, patches released on 1/11, has been causing Domain Controllers to be stuck in a reboot loop.
Fix is to remove the recent update.
This post covers the problem, and has the commands to uninstall the problematic update.

Microsoft finds macOS bug?
Never thought I would write those words in that order…
The bug has to do with the vulnerability, powerdir
Time to do those updates!
MacWorld post is here.