Vmworld

One of the sessions I attended at VMWorld was a Veeam V9 technical deep dive. As a Veeam customer for about 5 years now I have seen quite a few improvements, but I think V9 will be one of their biggest updates to date. Some of the features that were introduced were: Veeam Cloud Connect Replication - Currently Veeam Cloud Connect is a baked-in extension that allows you to automatically backup to hosted 3rd party repositories. This was implemented as an easy way to get your backups offsite, but with the replication feature there is a fail-over component. It is no longer just a backup repository, but a way to have your VMs running in the cloud in the event of a failure. No VPN is require - all traffic is sent over SSL / TLS; Direct NFS Access - This feature allows Veeam to talk directly to NFS storage, bypassing the need to talk to the hypervisor. This should cut down on the amount of ‘chatter’ required during backups and should result in quicker backup times. This is one feature I am looking forward to testing; NetApp SnapMirror and SnapVault integration - Although I no longer run NetApp in production, I thought this was a cool feature. Veeam already has NetApp snapshot integration (i.e. It backs up the machines via a snapshot on the filer instead of running a snapshot against the VM), but this could allow you to run backups from your secondary storage, thus decreasing storage IO demands even more (and possibly allowing you to do your remote backups from a remote snapshot); Per-VM backup file chain - In order to get better dedupe rates, this option (available via a checkbox) will store each VM in a backup job as its own file. This might make managing backup files easier as well; Veeam Explorer for Oracle - I don’t use Oracle, but it is interesting to see a new Explorer being added to the family. Also of note is that this works for the Windows & Linux versions; Veeam Explorer for Active Directory - You can now recover GPOs (yay!), AD Integrated DNS records (yay!), and an ’experts only’ feature to recovery configuration partition records; Veeam Explorer for MS SQL - You can now do table level recovery (assuming there are no dependencies), SQL Objects (e.g. Triggers, stored procedures, etc.) as well as the ability to use a remote SQL Server for staging; Standalone Console - The console can now run on a Windows desktop - no longer need to RDP to the Veeam server; Direct File Restore - If the Veeam server is located in site A, but the repository and destination server are in site B, Veeam will now restore the file without the need to send all the traffic back to site A. This could have a huge impact with regards to remote file restores; BitLooker - Suppose you have a 1 TB VMDK and you delete 500 GB. Because those files still exist in the OS, your backup files won’t shrink. This feature goes through and analyzes the NTFS MFT to identify deleted data and exempt it from the backup and/or replication; Useless Data - The ability to exempt folders and files from backups. A good use case is a general purpose share where folks dump scans from photocopiers; Scale-out Backup Repository - This will be a huge feature in some environments as it introduces the ability to make storage pools out of various islands of storage. It is designed to scale out in terms of storage, as well as performance (i.e. write to multiple nodes at once). Overall the Veeam session was probably one of the highlights for me. Seeing all of these new features that are coming down the pipeline shortly has definitely caught my eye for a quick upgrade. ...

You’ll notice that all of these VMWorld posts are always up a day after the fact - that would be because there is a severe shortage of free time here. Even when you sit down at the bloggers table, it’s extremely hard to get work done because you have tech legends standing around you talking, sometimes even talking TO you. Anyways, a recap of yesterday: VMWorld kicked off their first hackathon to push forward their DevOps initiative. I didn’t spend any time over there, but from where I sat in the hang space it looked like it had pretty good activity for the first year of the event. I attended the vExpert Panel on Hyperconverged Infrastructure. The takeaway there is that HCI is definitely a use case scenario, and one of its biggest drawbacks is that you have to scale everything linearly (i.e. If I need more storage, but not as much compute, there isn’t a whole lot that can be done). Overall it seemed that about %20 of the audience either had implemented or will implement HCI in the next 12 months … Interesting stat. I was lucky enough to visit Steve Pantol who is the co-author of the excellent Networking for VMware Admins and got him to sign my book. Later on I met Nick Marshall and Grant Orchard, two out of three of the authors who worked on Mastering VMware vSphere 6. Josh Atwell couldn’t make it as he was busy receiving the 2015 VMUG Partnership Award. Incidentally I bumped into him when he joined my group of three folks for beer, and then later again on the street. Both times I was without my book though. I was planning on heading over to the Hang Space when I ran into Ariel Sanchez (@arielsanchezmor) who is part of the vBrownBag community. We ended up heading over together where I was introduced to yet more members of the community. He had a podcast to do (the LATAM vBrownBag) in Spanish, so I took the time to head over to the Solutions Exchange to talk to some vendors. I was back in the Hang Space to watch a live The Geek Whisperers podcast. That was very entertaining to see live. I also watched a talk by John Arrasjid (VCDX001) – that made me feel like I was in the company of royalty. John was super approachable and made sure to talk to anyone who was interested. Plus he had some circa 2003 VMware stickers he was giving out. ...

Yesterday started off with the second keynote of the event, which is traditionally more technical than the first day. The big highlights were: A partnership was announce with Microsoft regarding delivery and management of Windows 10 to end user devices. A new version of Identity Manager Some enhancements for Horizon 6.2 Overall very focused on End User Computing which brought about an interesting remark. CEO Pat Gelsinger was describing his 5 Imperatives for Digital Businesses, one of which was security. He used Edward Snowden as an example of why companies need to look at security from the endpoint up. ...

Day 1 was quit the experience, despite it being a ’lite’ day. Day 2 is when things really get going with sessions getting into full swing and the keynote address. The first session I attended was vCenter Server Appliance as a “first Choice” which was packed. Some of the highlights included covering the migration process from a traditional Windows install to the VCSA. The general consensus seems to be that there really isn’t much of a reason to run the Windows version any more as the appliance version is at least at parity, if not higher, for all of the features and minimums. Of note is that Update Manager still requires a Windows server to run on. In a later session by William Lam (@lamw) it was noted that future updates on the vSphere web client will include VUM functionality (note that you’ll still need the VUM server). ...

After completing my first day of my first VMworld, I thought it would be a good time to recap what my day looked like. Since I am on Eastern time, I was up early which meant that I had no problem getting on the 06:30 bus to Mosconne. That being said, there was a lineup (but quick) for registration despite getting there a few minutes before registration opened. The whole process didn’t take long though and within about 15 minutes I had my badge, bag, and was good to go. Tintri was also having their annual user conference (dubbed Tintricity) which I attended; while there I had great conversations with other Tintri users. Overall everyone seems to be quite happy with their Tintris as a) they just run as they should and b) they really are as simple as they claim to be. By the time I got back from Tintricity, vBrownBag was holding their panels which were kindly hosted by vUnderground. I opted to attend the careers panel which was very candid and had expert advice on all sorts of topics ranging from knowing what you are worth and knowing when to stay or go. This panel could have easily have gone on for twice as long. VMUndergroud had their kick off party which was great. Without even trying I was able to connect with so many folks ranging from vExperts, to VMware employees, and even some speakers. It is amazing how great these community events are. A word of advice: know your limits; if you still out too late you will feel it the next day. Off to day two. ...

In a previous post I mentioned that I am fortunate enough to be heading to my first VMworld, and I also highlighted what I was hoping to gain from the experience. With only a couple of days until the conference kicks off, I thought I would put together a list of some of the essential things to pack for my trip. Chargers, batteries, cables, etc. - Whether you are at the airport, in a conference room, or maybe even in your hotel room, there never seems to be enough electrical outlets. If you are really unlucky you might think you found an outlet only to discover it’s a Electrical outlet sticker. I opted to invest in a portable power bar as I would I use it on this trip and there have been plenty of times when I needed one offsite. The nice thing about this port bar is that it has three traditional outlets, along with two USB slots. No more carrying around multiple adapters or swapping out USB cables on the charging block. I’m also expecting it to become a bit of a socializing tool when folks see me plug it in. Computing device - I have a ThinkPad X220 that I love; it is a bit older, but it is light (for a laptop) and has a good battery life. When you factor in the charging block though, it is definitely heavier than what I want. I was thinking about bringing my iPad which has a keyboard, but it still has some weight to it and it just isn’t as functional as my laptop (I would use VMware Horizon View if I had to connect back to the office, but it’s still not great on the iPad). Luckily I have a Microsoft Surface 3 available for the duration of my trip. I haven’t used it heavily yet, but so far I love it. Its weight is comparable to my iPad with the Bluetooth keyboard, it runs full-fledged Windows, and the battery on it is great. Is it a full laptop replacement? *Maybe* with all the right accessories (docking station, gigabit adapter, video out, etc.), but as something to travel with I don’t think I could do better. I plan on using downtime on the flight to update some documentation (there’s always plenty of that to do). Clothing / footwear – Be sure to review the weather. Yes, San Francisco is in California, but it isn’t necessarily scorching hot. Looking at the weather for the duration of the conference it looks it is going to be cooler than up here (Ontario, Canada) during the day, and cooling down at night. I’ll likely be fine with some long sleeves for the cooler evenings, but I’m going to bring a light jacket as well. Also, footwear - do not bring new shoes. Rather bring comfortable shoes that are already broken in. There is a ton of walking to do and you don’t want to end up with blisters by the end of the first day. US based SIM card - Roaming rates in Canada for US travel is ridiculous. For example, for 50 minutes of voice / unlimited texting / and 100 MB of data, I would be looking at $40. Instead I got my phone unlocked for about $30 and I signed up for Ting - they have tiered plans for texting, voice, and data, and they just charge for what you use. I’ll setup call forwarding from my existing number to the new number, swap out SIM card, and be good to go. Travel Documents / Itinerary - In my case I’ll need my passport, airline info, hotel info, party invites, and likely a map of the various areas (hotel, Mosconne, vendor parties, etc.). I have a folder in my inbox where I have been tossing this stuff, but I also started putting it in OneNote so that I can just pull up what I need on my phone quickly instead of wading through email. Another benefit is that I can add whatever I need in there (i.e. a screen capture of a map, links to relevant info, etc.). Which leads me to my last point. Know your route - At least have some idea of where you are going (hotel, convention center, vendor parties, etc.) and how you will get there. San Francisco’s public transit system (known as BART) services a fairly wide area and might be a good option depending on where you are going. Other options are traditional taxis, and of course, Uber. I have never used Uber, but I have setup an account a head of time so if / when the time comes that I need a lift I won’t be stuck filling out details before I can book anything. I’m hoping for a smooth productive trip, and hopefully all of this planning will pay off. If you see me at VMworld, be sure to say hi. I always enjoy talking to like-minded IT folks. ...