Interesting Virtual News and Posts - #3

virtuallyGhetto: vSphere Security Hardening Report Script for vSphere 5
William has upated his script that allows you to check your vSphere infrastructure hardening. It includes new  requirements from vSphere 5.0 Security Hardening Guide (public draft).

Well, the fact of the publishing of public draft vSphere 5.0 Security Hardening Guide is interesting news also :)
Here is a document with changes between 4.1 and 5.0.

VMware ESXi 5 snapshot changes

Post describes some traits of ESXi 5 snapshots. 

Vmware View 5.1 Rumours: new version will be released on May 9th.

Creating and Reviewing Windows crash dumps in VMware virtual machines

Instructions: how to create memory.dmp from from the running virtual machine with Windows

RVTools 3.3 has been released

RVTools is a windows .NET 2.0 application which uses the VI SDK to display information about your virtual machines and ESX hosts. Interacting with VirtualCenter 2.5, ESX Server 3.5, ESX Server 3i, ESX Server 4i, VirtualCenter 4.0, ESX Server 4.0, VirtualCenter 4.1, ESX Server 4.1, VirtualCenter 5.0, VirtualCenter Appliance or ESX Server 5 RVTools is able to list information about VMs, CPU, Memory, Disks, Partitions, Network, Floppy drives, CD drives, Snapshots, VMware tools, ESX hosts, HBAs, Nics, Switches, Ports, Distributed Switches, Distributed Ports, Service consoles, VM Kernels, Datastores and health checks. With RVTools you can disconnect the cd-rom or floppy drives from the virtual machines and RVTools is able to update the VMware Tools installed inside each virtual machine to the latest version.

Interesting Virtual News and Posts - #2

Hotlink SuperVISOR – vCenter for Hyper-V, KVM, and XenServer

Hotlink announced a new version of its SuperVisor solution. Hotlink 1.5 allows you to manage vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V, Red Hat KVM, and Citrix XenServer all from within you vCenter console. Additionally, Hotlink 1.5 adds the following extremely useful functinality:

• Snapshot Manager – Administrators can create, utilize, and manage cross-platform snapshots inside the VMware vCenter console – providing a single point of management for heterogeneous virtual machines
• Template Manager – Users are able to create and deploy a single template across all target hypervisors, eliminating the time-consuming and inefficient process of building and maintaining platform-specific virtual machine templates
• Homogenous Live Migration – VMware vCenter is now extended to provide live migration (e.g. vMotion) of Hyper-V, XenServer, and KVM virtual machines within homogeneous clusters – enabling the robust VMware management capabilities to be utilized for cross-platform, critical workloads

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Microsoft releases beta of Virtual Machine Converter Tool

The tool can convert VM’s and VMware Virtual Disks (VMDKs) from vSphere 4.1 and 5.0 to Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Hyper-V and Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 SP1, uninstalling the VMware tools and installing the Hyper-V integration services while converting. It also supports offline conversion from VMDK to the Microsoft VHD format.

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Extracting SSL Thumbprint from ESXi

3 methods to avoid mistakes during the inventory of SSL Thumbprints.

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VMware vSphere 5 Memory Management and Monitoring diagram

VMware published the VMware vSphere 5 Memory Management and Monitoring diagram that provides a comprehensive look into the ESXi memory management mechanisms and reclamation methods.
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vSphere Security Hardening Policy and SRM 5Post describes issue with Site Recovery Manager 5.0 that requires to have VIX API enabled on all virtual machines. But this option should be disabled according to the VMware Security Hardening Guide. The author has organized a survey to see whether it can be a problem for you.

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That's just funny (useful dialog in vCenter)

Interesting Virtual News and Posts - #1

"Trend Micro Deep Security reaches version 8.0" New version allows you to monitor file integrity on the guest OS with no agent installation. And this feature is fully integrated with vShield the VMware vShield Endpoint APIs. Integrity Monitoring is a key component of a layered defense approach, which can be effective in combating targeted attacks, also known as “APTs” or Advanced Persistent Threats.

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How to prevent VM from starting. You need to convert VM into a template or remove the executable bit from the .vmx file.

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VMware has released 3 hours of free online training:
vSphere Storage Profiles
Migration Hot & Cold Migration - Storage DRS
Migration – vMotion
VM Management - Cloning/Templating
VM Management - Install OS
Migration Hot & Cold Migration – HA
Storage - Thick & Thin Provisioning
Installation - ESXi 5
Networking - Distributed Virtual Switch
Storage – VMFS
Installation - vCenter Server

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In depth: Windows Server 8 Hyper-V Replica. Interesting post about new Hyper-V feature "Replica". How and where does it work. And why do you need it.

Windows Server 8 Hyper-V Live Migration: what's new and details.