Category: General

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Why patching your vSphere infrastructure is just not enough

In recent discussions on why should one use a compliance and security scanner for vSphere I more than once heard a straight opinion: Why should we pay another tool. We have VUM already and just keep our vSphere cluster(s) up to date.

This opinion neglects several crucial facts about vSphere as well as any other software: Not every bug is patched once found right away. Sometimes known vulnerabilities linger for months until they are patched. In addition, some of the problems just cannot be solved by the software provider, VMware in this case.

Let me use two examples to point that out. Continue reading “Why patching your vSphere infrastructure is just not enough”

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VCSA HA – What is it good for?

Once upon a time Edwin Starr (and later Bruce Springsteen) raised that question – ..well kind of. 😉

With the increasing popularity of virtual desktop infrastructures (VDI) the role of the virtual center has become much more important. In the beginning of virtualization vCenter was a tool to configure and control your ESX hosts and virtual machines. If it went down for maintenance or failure it wasn’t a serious problem. Your server-VMs still kept running.

VDI turned out to be a game changer. If your vCenter goes offline, users can no longer log into their deskstops. This makes vCenter maintenance a tricky task. It can’t be done during business hours and even late at night or on weekends there are remote users who want to log into their virtual desktops. Or think about employees working in different timezones. In some companies the sun never sets on vCenter. Continue reading “VCSA HA – What is it good for?”

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Datacore Update with Emulex 12000 HBA might end up in BSOD

Two year old bug still not fixed

Today I’ve updated a Datacore-Cluster from SanSymphony10  PSP6 U1 to PSP6 U4. In the past we had issues with updating DataCore-Emulex drivers during the update process. Some updates went fine – others resulted in a BSOD. That was in 2015. Customer Support told us, that this was fixed with SanSymphony10 PSP1.

As a security precaution I’ve followed a procedure (article in german) where I first uninstalled all Datacore-Emulex drivers before I applied the DataCore update and replaced drivers on all HBA afterwards. That is time-consuming and complicated. So I gave it a try and did a regular update to a DataCore cluster with Emulex HBA (12000 series). Continue reading “Datacore Update with Emulex 12000 HBA might end up in BSOD”