Latest Fling from VMware Labs - DrmDiagnose

VMware vCenter has provided sophisticated resource management controls (to set resource reservations, limits, shares, etc.) for virtual machines since vCenter 2.0. However, we have noticed that not everyone uses these controls due to confusion about how these features can affect other virtual machines in the resource pool. For instance, what happens when you increase the CPU size of a VM? How does that affect the other VMs in the same cluster?
This Fling attempts to make this easier by providing resource management recommendations based on inventory dumps of the existing environment. It compares the current resource demands of a VM and suggests changes to the resource allocation settings to achieve the performance you are looking for. It will also let you know how it impacts the other VMs.

For more details, please see this blog post by Frank Denneman, titled "There is a new fling in town: DRMdiagnose<http://frankdenneman.nl/2013/02/28/there-is-a-new-fling-in-town-drmdiagnose/>".


Download DrmDiagnose <http://labs.vmware.com/flings/drmdiagnose>

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Clarification on (Zero-Down Time) VMware Tools Upgrade in vSphere 5.1 - VMware vSphere Blog

There have been some recent questions about upgrading to the latest version of VMware Tools in vSphere 5.1 and the benefits it may bring with future upgrades of VMware Tools. Historically, VMware Tools upgrades has always required an operating system reboot as new device drivers and kernel modules will not go into effect until the next reboot. For Windows operating systems, you could "suppress" a reboot by specifying an advanced installer option<http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1018377>. For UNIX/Linux operating systems, the new device drivers and kernel modules will be staged when you upgrade VMware Tools, but will only be activated upon the next reboot. In both case, you can continue to run your virtual machine in a partially upgraded state for a limited amount of time until your next maintenance window, but it is recommended that you reboot as soon as possible.

In vSphere 5.1, some of you may have heard about something called Zero-down time VMware Tools upgrade where an operating system reboot will no longer be required for upgrading to future versions of VMware Tools. However, this statement is inaccurate and has caused some confusion with our customers. I would like to take this opportunity to help clarify the expected behavior as you plan for VMware Tools upgrade in vSphere 5.1.

Is there downtime when upgrading to vSphere 5.1 version of VMware Tools?

Yes. If you are running VMware Tools prior to vSphere 5.1, an operating system reboot will always be required for new device drivers and kernel modules to go into effect.

Is there downtime when upgrading to future versions of VMware Tools?

It depends. If one or more components have been updated since the last VMware Tools upgrade or one of the VMware Tools components requests a system reboot, then a reboot will be required. The following VMware KB http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2015163 has been created to help identify the components that would require a reboot. A reboot would not be require if only the base components of VMware Tools have been upgraded (e.g. no PVSCSI, VMXNET3). You can refer to the above KB for components that require a reboot.

What has changed in VMware Tools for vSphere 5.1 for upgrades?

We have made improvements in our VMware Tools installer to help reduce the need for operating system reboots when upgrading common components for VMware Tools. This overall reduces the amount of time for managing VMware Tools upgrade as well as reducing or potentially eliminating the amount of downtime required for a system reboot when upgrading VMware Tools.

Which Operating Systems does this apply to?

Windows Vista or greater

What version of virtual hardware or Virtual Machine Compatibility is required?

Virtual Hardware 9 or VMware ESXi 5.1 Compatibility or greater

What about UNIX/Linux Operating Systems?

As mentioned above, this currently only applies to Windows operating system for Vista or greater. However, VMware continues to look for ways to improve the VMware Tools platform and UNIX/Linux operating systems is definitely something that is being looked at.

Is VMware Tools Upgrade Required When Upgrading vSphere?

Please refer to this blog article<http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2013/02/is-a-vmware-tools-upgrade-required-when-upgrading-vsphere.html> by Kyle Gleed.

blogs.vmware.com [X] <http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2013/02/clarification-on-zero-down-time-vmware-tools-uprade-in-vsphere-5-1.html> |by William Lam on February 22, 2013

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New Technical White Paper - VMware View 5 Infrastructure Resiliency with Site Recovery Manager

VMware View offers a personalized, device-neutral, end-user computing experience with increased security and control. It enables agile desktop solutions that quickly meet changing business needs and proactively protect against planned and unplanned downtime. This case study provides insight and information on how to increase availability and recoverability of a View infrastructure using VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager (SRM) and common disaster recovery (DR) tools and methodologies.

vCenter SRM automates the failover process of the VMware View management environment to enable fast, reliable recovery and meet specific Recovery Time Objectives (RTO).The architecture described here is an active/passive design, in which the entire View infrastructure operates within one datacenter until the failover scenario is invoked. This solution does not satisfy every use case or requirement for virtual desktop disaster recovery.

Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and Return on Investment (ROI), for example, were not evaluated during testing and implementation. However, this study does demonstrate a successfully tested DR solution for a View infrastructure that is easy to implement and support. Among the environments that can benefit from this solution are those that already include SRM and those where a virtual desktop use case has a definitive DR requirement.

Other solutions are possible for DR with VMware View, but they may be more complicated and less reliable. Although vCenter SRM is required for this specific solution, it is not a requirement for VMware View disaster recovery in general.

Link to the white paper: VMware View Infrastructure Resiliency VMware View 5 and VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager<http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/Recovery-Manager-disaster-recovery.pdf>
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Broadening VMware’s EUC Horizons with Innovation

Welcome to 2013, the era of multi-device mobile workspace, BYOD and the consumerization of IT. Let's explore each of these.

Consumerization of IT doesn't mean encouraging your users to use unaccountable, non-compliant consumer services to get their work done. But it does mean that IT has competition! IT is no longer the only game in town. Users are far more sophisticated in 2013 – they use tools and technologies in their personal lives and woe to the IT organization that doesn't provide access to modern easy to use, business compliant technologies that enable a productive workforce. Fail to do that and your IT org is on the road to obsolescent.

This brings me to BYOD, which is a great advance for users – buy and use what you want, when you want it. No longer are you tethered to an uncool corporate-sanctioned device that was approved 3 years ago.

And lastly, the multi-device workspace. We use many different devices throughout the day. Most users have 2-3 devices that they use at different times and places depending on context. Some folks call this the "post-PC" era, but as I've mentioned before I consider it the "Post PC only" era.

So given this landscape, what do businesses need today from an End-User Computing strategy? They need to embrace all of the above and do so in a way that is manageable, cost-effective, secure and compliant. They should also give users access to their "stuff" across all their devices safely, securely and efficiently. In order to accomplish this, IT needs to embrace technologies that will give them the ability to manage user business identity, and deliver business applications and data across a multitude of devices. In this new and modern world, identity and policies should follow a human, not a device – and IT needs to move away from physical device management. VMware has been hard at work to address this challenge for IT and users, and today I'm excited to share more details about the products and innovations that advance our EUC vision.

Today we launched the Horizon Suite – the platform for workforce mobility that will efficiently and easily deliver a virtual workspace to end-users that spans all their devices. The suite will consist of Horizon Workspace, Horizon Mirage and Horizon View. These products and their technologies, individually and collectively as a suite, will deliver the tools you need for today's multi-device, mobile workspace. Now I'd like to discuss some of the technical innovations within each of these products.

Horizon Workspace 1.0 will present users with a single identity that spans your devices, business applications, files and data, and even your View desktops. The user interface is a self-service portal that with a single click delivers SaaS, Windows desktop, ThinApp packages and mobile applications to your devices in the most efficient way possible. IT entitles and tracks users and their applications via a centrally stored and administered catalogue and accompanying portal. Horizon Workspace also will contain an enterprise-grade file synch service that automatically synchronizes your files across your devices that enables rich collaboration. And for IT, the master copy of the data will be securely contained and tracked behind the corporate firewall, providing security and compliance. The product will be available later this quarter and I encourage you to check it out.

One of the constituents in a multi-device workspace is still good old Windows PCs and their applications. VMware and our customers haven't forgotten about Windows just yet! We are continuing our investments in products and technologies that facilitate bridging between the Windows environment and the multi-device workspace, as well as provide a more easily predictable and easily managed Windows experience. Horizon Mirage 4.0 is the first major release of our Mirage image management software since the VMware acquisition of Wanova. It will feature the most requested new capability – production grade application layering. And yes, Horizon Mirage will now have the ability to package applications and groups of applications in separate, independently manageable layers. This is state of the art image management for enterprises of all sizes with diverse workforces and allows IT to manage Windows and Windows applications more like modern device firmware. Mirage operates on both physical and virtual images and enables centralized image management with local, disconnected execution. Great stuff!

Lastly, Horizon View 5.2 is the newest version of our trusted VDI product. It can run Windows clients in VMs on vSphere in the datacenter, and deliver the graphics and user interface remotely over the LAN or WAN. VDI has been a great technology that addresses many use cases, such as Mobile Secure Desktops, Business Process Desktops, and Follow-Me Desktops. The multi-device workspace needs Windows desktops and Windows applications too, especially when you are running on non-Windows devices such as iPads or Android tablets – and VMware has been putting a lot of emphasis on enhanced mobile user experience for tablets through our user interface virtualization innovations, now referred to as Unity Touch. Horizon View 5.2 will be fully integrated with Horizon Workspace, providing single sign-on and access to your desktop through the self-service portal. That access can be via the traditional full function View client available for most platforms and now will also be available in just the browser via our "Blast" HTML 5 protocol. Horizon View 5.2 will also contain additional enhancements including 3D hardware accelerated graphics, vSphere SE-Sparse storage consolidation and improved scaling and performance.

Hope you enjoyed meeting our Horizon family! All the products and their innovations are expected to be available later this quarter. Please keep us posted on your feedback and experiences as you use these products. Do you think the Horizon Suite will address the IT challenges that exist in your environment?

By scottdavis

 

Managing Virtual Hardware Versions During a vSphere Upgrade - VMware vSphere Blog

Managing Virtual Hardware Versions During a vSphere Upgrade - VMware vSphere Blog
blogs.vmware.com [X] <http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2013/02/managing-virtual-hardware-versions-during-a-vsphere-upgrade.html> |by Kyle Gleed on February 13, 2013

In my last blog<http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2013/02/is-a-vmware-tools-upgrade-required-when-upgrading-vsphere.html> I talked about how the extended VMware Tools support provided by VMware helps facilitate vSphere upgrades. In this blog I want to discuss how the extended virtual hardware support also helps with upgrades and call your attention to an important distinction between the two.

Like with VMware Tools, VMware provides extended support for older virtual hardware versions. That is to say that newer ESXi hosts can run virtual machines with an older virtual hardware version. For example, vSphere 5.1 supports VMs running virtual hardware versions, 4, 7, 8 and 9. However, it is important to note that virtual machines running newer virtual hardware versions cannot run on older versions of ESXi. For example, a virtual machine running virtual hardware 9 cannot run on an ESXi 5.0 host. The following table highlights the virtual hardware version support for vSphere 4.0 and above.

[http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/files/2013/02/k1.jpg]<http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/files/2013/02/k1.jpg>

It is important to consider this when planning your vSphere upgrade as upgrading the virtual hardware at the wrong time could cause problems. This point is best illustrated with a simple example.

Consider a small cluster hosting several virtual machines. This cluster is running four ESXi 4.1 hosts and the virtual machines are all running at virtual hardware version 7.

[http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/files/2013/02/k2.jpg]<http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/files/2013/02/k2.jpg>

Of course you begin the upgrade by upgrading vCenter Server. After the vCenter upgrade you then proceed to upgrade the first ESXi host in the cluster. You do this by:

1. Placing the host into maintenance mode
2. Waiting for DRS to migrate the virtual machines off the host
3. Upgrading the host
4. Re-connecting the host to vCenter

Simple enough, we now have one host running vSphere 5.1 and three hosts running vSphere 4.1. In upgrade terms this is referred to as a "mixed cluster", and because the VMs are all running virtual hardware 7 they can still run on any of the four hosts. So there are no concerns with running different versions of ESX/ESXi.

[http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/files/2013/02/k3.jpg]<http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/files/2013/02/k3.jpg>

At this point you can repeat the steps to upgrade the remaining hosts, but lets say that before we upgrade the next hosts in the cluster we get called on to create a new virtual machine. As luck would have it this new virtual machine gets created on the upgraded 5.1 hosts, and without giving it much thought the virtual hardware gets set to version 9.

[http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/files/2013/02/k4.jpg]<http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/files/2013/02/k4.jpg>

This now introduces a problem. Although virtual hardware 9 is supported on the ESXi 5.1 host, it is not supported on the three ESXi 4.1 hosts. Consider what would happen if the 5.1 host where to fail and VMware HA needed to restart the new VM on one of the surviving hosts? The restart would fail because the 4.1 hosts cannot run a virtual machine with the newer virtual hardware version. End result is an unexpected outage would occur.

[http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/files/2013/02/k5.jpg]<http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/files/2013/02/k5.jpg>

For this reason, you should avoid upgrading your virtual machine hardware versions until after all the hosts in the cluster have been upgraded to the latest ESXi version. In addition, when creating new virtual machines you should take care to ensure that they are always created with a virtual hardware version that is compatible with all the hosts in the cluster. In this example, if the virtual machine had been created with a virtual hardware version of 7 there would not have been a problem.

As you can see, when upgrading to a new vSphere release it is important to pay attention to the hardware versions of your existing VMs as well as the hardware version of any new VMs created during the upgrade process. With this in mind let me highlight a couple of nice features introduced with the vSphere 5.1 web client that will help you do this.

Note, Virtual Machine Compatibility and the ability to set a default compatibility level are unique to the vSphere Web Client. These features are not available with the traditional vSphere client.

1. Virtual Machine Compatibility

Starting with vSphere 5.1 the web client now uses the term virtual machine "compatibility" in place of "virtual hardware". In addition, instead of using a version number the web client now makes references to the vSphere release on which the virtual machine was created. For example, in the image below we can see the virtual machine's compatibility is based on ESXi 5.0 (or what would traditionally be referred to as virtual hardware version 8).

[http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/files/2013/02/k6.jpg]<http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/files/2013/02/k6.jpg>

This move away from a virtual hardware version number to a virtual machine compatibility level not only makes it easier to track the virtual machine capabilities (by tying it to a release and not a version number), but it also helps eliminate the pressure felt by many to continuously upgrade their VMs virtual hardware simply to "keep up" with an ever-increasing version number.

2. Setting a Default Compatibility

In addition to the change in terminology, the web client also allows you to set a default compatibility. You can set a default compatibility level at the host or cluster level. This can be handy during upgrades and when running a mixed cluster as it will help ensure that no one accidently creates a VM with a higher compatibility level than can be supported by the hosts in the cluster

[http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/files/2013/02/k7.jpg]<http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/files/2013/02/k7.jpg>

One final point, unlike with VMware Tools where it is always recommended to upgrade to the latest version as soon as you can, with virtual hardware you should only upgrade when it is required. There is no need to incur any unnecessary virtual machine downtime just to keep up with the latest virtual hardware version. Upgrading virtual hardware is only necessary when required to take advantage of the newer features and capabilities.

Summary

So in summary, similar to the extended support provided with VMware Tools, VMware also supports running virtual machines with older virtual hardware versions on newer versions of ESXi. However, unlike with VMware Tools, the new virtual hardware versions introduced with each new release are not backward compatible with older versions of ESXi. This lack of backwards compatibility, if not closely monitored, can be problematic. Especially when running a cluster comprised of hosts running different ESX/ESXi versions, such as during a rolling upgrade.

To help track virtual hardware versions across your infrastructure the new vSphere web client (introduced in vSphere 5.1) uses the term virtual machine "compatibility" in place of "hardware version". This change makes it easier to readily identify a virtual machine's capabilities by tying it to the vSphere release on which it is based. At the same time it can help eliminate pressure to continuously keep up with an ever-increasing version number. In addition, the new web client also allows you to define a default compatibility level for any new virtual machines that get created. This will help avoid the situation where someone inadvertently creates a virtual machine with a newer compatibility level that can be supported by the host in your cluster.

I hope this blog has been helpful. Get notification of other blogs by following me on Twitter @VMwareESXi.

blogs.vmware.com [X] <http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2013/02/managing-virtual-hardware-versions-during-a-vsphere-upgrade.html> |by Kyle Gleed on February 13, 2013
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Introducing VMware vSphere Data Protection Advanced - VMware SMB Blog

I am excited to announce the evolution of VMware vSphere Data Protection with a new edition called VMware vSphere Data Protection Advanced, which is VMware's backup and recovery solution designed for midsize vSphere environments.

As many of you know, vSphere Data Protection (VDP)<http://www.vmware.com/products/datacenter-virtualization/vsphere/data-protection.html> was introduced with VMware vSphere 5.1 as a feature included with vSphere Essentials Plus and above. Replacing the legacy backup feature VMware Data Recovery, VDP enabled our customers to protect small environments with a more robust and reliable solution.

With VDP Advanced<http://www.vmware.com/go/vdpadvanced>, we extend the capabilities of VDP to enable any midsize customer to protect their entire vSphere environment.



Greater scalability and application awareness

VDP Advanced provides greater scalability with up to 8TB of deduplicated data per virtual appliance, four times as much as VDP delivers. Expect this 8TB to protect approximately 200 virtual machines (VMs) based on average storage and retention requirements, and just as in VDP, remember that you can scale beyond 8TB by deploying several VDP Advanced virtual appliances.

VDP Advanced also provides application-aware protection for the most prominent, mission-critical applications found in most environments, namely Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft SQL Server. By running agents from within the VM, VDP Advanced ensures application consistency, which is a crucial state to guarantee reliable protection of these applications. This approach also enables more granular backup and recovery of individual databases.



Cost-effective backup and recovery designed for vSphere

VDP has experienced some impressive adoption with over 10,000 VMware customers having downloaded the solution since it became available in vSphere 5.1 in September 2012. The popularity of VDP can be explained through the benefits it delivers, all of which are also available with VDP Advanced.

Based on EMC Avamar technology, both VDP and VDP Advanced feature variable-length deduplication performed across all the VMs targeted to the VDP virtual appliance. Additionally, when application-specific agents are deployed, deduplication in VDP Advanced is performed inside the VM, which unlocks even greater efficiency. The unique variable-length, global, client-side deduplication engine in VDP Advanced reduces backup storage by up to 95% and backup network bandwidth by up to 99%, enabling you to experience important cost savings in your backup infrastructure.

However, Capex savings mean little without the Opex component to support them. VDP Advanced is the ideal backup solution for your virtual environment because it is designed to simplify the life of the vSphere administrator. Creating backup jobs is a simple wizard-driven setup and recovering VMs or individual files is a one-step process. Seamlessly integrated with vCenter Server and the vSphere Web Client, VDP Advanced dramatically reduces operational overhead because it allows you to manage backup and recovery of your VMs from the same UI as your vSphere infrastructure.

We understand IT organizations can be constrained in time and resources and that you can't afford to deal with complicated and expensive products. That is why we are excited to deliver a product with enterprise-class deduplication, yet simple not only in management but also from a licensing perspective. VDP Advanced is licensed per CPU, which means that you can protect as many VMs as needed on your licensed vSphere hosts. Licensing VDP Advanced is as simple as matching the number of vSphere licenses and your environment will be protected and ready to go.

VDP Advanced is available for purchase a-la-carte, or included in the entirely new vSphere with Operations Managements Acceleration Kits (Enterprise and Enterprise Plus editions). Each one of these kits includes everything you need to get your vSphere environment started, including the ability to protect it with the most efficient and simple backup and recovery.

If you want to learn more about VDP Advanced, visit the website<http://www.vmware.com/go/vdpadvanced>. And if you are already a user of VDP, remember than you can easily upgrade to take advantage of the scalability and application awareness of VDP Advanced.



blogs.vmware.com <http://blogs.vmware.com/smb/2013/02/vdp-advanced.html> by VMware SMB
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VMware has released the public draft of the vSphere 5.1 Hardening Guide - Eric Sloof

When implementing virtualization technology, organizations must ensure that they can continue to maintain a secure environment and meet their compliance obligations. To do so, you will have to evaluate risks that might affect protected information and mitigate those risks through risk-appropriate standards, processes, and best practices.
The draft version of the vSphere 5.1 Hardening Guide provides guidance on how to securely deploy VMware vSphere 5.1 in a production environment. The focus is on initial configuration of the virtualization infrastructure layer, which covers the following:

* The virtualization hosts
* Configuration of the virtual machine container (NOT hardening of the guest operating system (OS) or any applications running within)
* Configuration of the virtual networking infrastructure, including the management and storage networks as well as the virtual switch (but NOT security of the virtual machine's network)
* VMware vCenter Server, its database and client components

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vCenter Heartbeat Installation and Validation | VMware Support Insider - VMware Blogs

We have a new video for you today which should be special interest for anyone looking to try out, evaluate or install vCenter Server Heartbeat.

In this video we discuss and demonstrate installing vCenter Server Heartbeat, and also validating the installation.

This video is a first installment of a series answering the most common questions asked by the VMware user community when deploying vCenter Server Heartbeat. Whether deploying in High Availability or Disaster Recovery deployment modes, this video will offer key points, tips and considerations for a successful deployment.

It would be worth reading up on the installation procedures in general for both the vSphere and Heartbeat products if you have not done so previously. Below are the links to the relevant documentation sites.

* To familiarize yourself with the Heartbeat installation requirements, see the Heartbeat documentation page here<https://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/heartbeat_pubs.html>.
* For vSphere 5.1 documentation, see the vSphere 5.1 documentation page here<https://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-pubs.html>.

http://blogs.vmware.com/kb/2013/02/vcenter-heartbeat-installation-and-validation.html#.URLBjkWoOc0

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64GB Microsoft Surface Pro to Only Have 23GB of Usable Storage

[Surface pro]

The Microsoft Surface Pro, the higher model version of the earlier released Surface RT<http://www.iphoneincanada.ca/microsoft/microsoft-windows-chief-using-new-surface-tablet-as-a-skateboard-photos/>, is set to hit stores in early February. This new tablet will run Windows 8, which unfortunately also takes up 64% free space on the entry 64GB model.

A Microsoft spokesperson revealed to The Verge<http://www.theverge.com/2013/1/29/3929110/surface-pro-disk-space-windows-8> the free space users will have available on their 64GB and 128GB models:

The base 64GB Surface Pro model will have 41GB of installed assets, leaving users only 23GB of disk space, while the more expensive 128GB version will have 83GB left after a 45GB partition is applied. For its part, Microsoft does warn users of the issue on the Surface webpage, saying that, "System software uses significant storage space. Available storage is subject to change based on system software updates and apps usage."

Wait. What? So the 64GB Surface Pro ($899) will only have 36% of its advertised storage available and the 128GB model ($999) will only have 65%?

Of course, Microsoft says users can create a backup bootable USB and delete the installed recovery partition to reclaim used space. Microsoft stressed to AllThingsD<http://allthingsd.com/20130129/and-the-32-gb-surface-pro-will-have-just-enough-storage-to-display-the-start-up-screen/> the Surface Pro's USB 3.0 port and microSDXC slot should rid storage woes users may encounter.

"Surface Pro has a USB 3.0 port for connectivity with almost limitless storage options, including external hard drives and USB flash drives," the company said in a statement. "Surface also comes pre-loaded with SkyDrive, allowing you to store up to 7 GB of content in the cloud for free. The device also includes a microSDXC card slot that lets you store up to 64 GB of additional content to your device. Customers can also free up additional storage space by creating a backup bootable USB and deleting the recovery partition."

So what is the Surface Pro? A tablet or a notebook? Does Microsoft expect users to lug around external USB hard drives, USB sticks or microSDXC memory cards for extra storage? At least it has that awesome 'clicking' keyboard (wait–that costs an additional $120-$130 depending on model).

There's nothing better than spending $900 for 23GB of free space on your Surface Pro, which has half the battery life of the Surface RT<http://www.iphoneincanada.ca/ipad/microsoft-surface-pro-starts-at-899-with-half-the-battery-life-of-surface-rt/>, is 43% thicker and half a pound heavier. Nothing else much to say here other than "Oh, Microsoft." You can't make this stuff up.

Earlier today, Apple conveniently timed its announcement of the availability of a 128GB capacity iPad 4<http://www.iphoneincanada.ca/apple/apple-announces-128-gb-ipad-4-with-retina-display/> starting at $799, coming in February.

[http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/54700fc7b6514e57e538121c6ffde869?s=60&d=http%3A%2F%2F1.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D60&r=G]

Gary Ng<http://www.iphoneincanada.ca/author/gary-ng/>

Founder and Editor-in-Chief of iPhoneinCanada.ca<http://iPhoneinCanada.ca>. Follow me on Twitter<https://twitter.com/iphoneincanada>. and on Google+<https://plus.google.com/102737888032988430290>. Click here<http://www.anrdoezrs.net/click-2941053-10542639?sid=iicbio> to save 20% OFF at ZAGG.com<http://ZAGG.com> with coupon 'iphoneinca'!

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feedproxy.google.com [X] <http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/iphoneincanada/~3/KJaqoTwqxqY/> |by Gary Ng
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Video - vCert Manager

A massive area of pain for customers in a virtualized environment is managing SSL certificates and keys for components in the VMware stack. Currently under development, with a scheduled release in Q1 2013, the vCert Manager<http://www.vsslabs.com/vCert.html> is a solution that provides automated management and operations of SSL Certificates in a VMware environment - a single pane of glass to create, manage, apply, custom SSL certificates for all of the products, including creating the certificate keys, signing request, applying to the Certificate Authority, and when the certificate is issued, to automatically apply it to the particular vSphere component.


vCert manager is available as a plug in install into vCenter, or vCenter Configuration Manager, it integrates at an API level with open SSL or an Enterprise CA such as Microsoft CA in addition to allowing manual import of existing certificates and public CA certificates that can then be applied by the system.
It integrates at an API level with the VMware stack of tools (vCenter Server, Update Manager, vShield Manager, vCenter Configuration Manager, vCenter Operations, vSphere Web Client, Virtual Infrastructure Navigator, vCenter Chargeback, SRM, vCloud Director, vCenter Heartbeat, ESX and ESXi Hosts, VMware View, or a subset of these based on discussions and priorities between VSS, ITS2K and VMware from versions compatible from vSphere 4.x onwards (v5.5 of vCenter Configuration Manager and 5.0 of vCenter Operations Only onwards only)


* Has auto discovery of VM components (through vCenter, vCOps, vCloud and Linked Mode)
* Upon initial installation of VM components, replaces temporary/ unsecure default certificates supplied with the VMware components with those supplied by the Enterprise CA.
* Stores all VMware related certificates and VM account credentials in a secure database.
* Keeps track of all expirations and revocations and allows an administrator to view upcoming expirations and automatically go apply for a new certificate
* Allows role based access control and separation of duties between security admin and VI admin"


Via Michael Webster<https://twitter.com/vcdxnz001>

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