Posts

After a long day of working with Microsoft’s IPAM feature, I found that it might be possible to deploy my virtual servers with a static IP Address without going to look up an IP from an Excel spreadsheet or some other log. OK, let’s address the elephant in the room first. I know that there is this thing called DHCP and that I can already automatically assign an IP addresss, but with that solution, my IP Address could change from time to time. Typically, I create a DHCP Scope for servers that I’m just testing out, or need some dummy VMs with IP Addresses. This way I don’t have to worry about looking up stuff before deploying a VM that I’m going to destroy again shortly afterwards. I also use DHCP for PC’s, where I almost never care about the IP Address. ...

If you’ve been in a situation where you need to test connectivity, you’ve probably used the ping command. But what do you do when you’re trying to test connectivity from an ESXi host? Luckily there is a command called vmkping that will allow you to test from the host. The first thing that you need to do is to SSH into your ESXi host. Turn the SSH Service on from the Configuration –> Security Profile Tab. Then you can use your favorite ssh client and remote into your host. ...

VMware just announced their 2.0 version of Log Insight last week and for a logging product, it’s pretty cool. Let’s face it, most of us don’t get up every morning and rush to our computer to check out the newest logging software on the market, but VMware Log Insight is still neat. Installation The VMware Log Insight 2.0 product was shockingly easy to install for log management system. In my experience, logging software makes you jump through so many hoops that you need to be a Parkour Ninja to do successfully, and some of which I would consider to be a " Cold Butter IT Solution", but not in this case. The install comes in the form of an OVA and I won’t go through that process, but it’s very simple. ...

The other day I was making a grilled cheese sandwich for my son and it got me thinking. The process of making one of these delicious morsels was similar to some of the IT solutions that I had worked with in the past. Let me explain. First and foremost, lets define the objective. The goal was to have a tasty grilled cheese sandwich for lunch. This is not a difficult process and the steps are also fairly straight forward. ...

When my Cisco 3750 finally died, I was bummed out but looking for a replacement. No sense in crying about my loss, or trying to decide IF I’m going to replace my switch since, my whole lab would be kind of useless without it. My requirements for a new switch were pretty simple. Layer 3 Routing Capabilities 24 Gigabit Ports or better Cheap The HP v1910-24G (JE006A) seemed to meet my requirements so I ordered it from Amazon when I saw that it was under $300. I needed to get it in my lab fast, so I quickly made the purchase but I’ll admit I was skeptical. Timothy Carr eased my mind a bit when he tweeted me. ...

theITHollow.com lab suffered an outage to the core switch a few weeks ago (an aging Cisco 3750) and I was looking for a replacement that wouldn’t break the bank. Luckily I found the HP v1910-24G (JE006A) to be more than adequate. One of my main gripes with this switch was that the Command Line Interface was very limited. See for yourself. While the cli out of the box is nice, and I would say necessary, there isn’t a lot that can be done with it. For basic configuration tasks, you’ll be stuck with the Web GUI. But after digging through some HP discussion boards I found out that you can enable the Comware operating system commands. ...

For the past year I’ve been working as a Vice President for a startup consulting company that deals with distressed assets. Think debt collections type stuff. My role involved managing projects, providing technical consultations about things like PCI-DSS, HIPAA and infrastructure design. While this position was certainly challenging in its own ways, it was time for me to make a change. I’m very excited to be joining the team at Ahead. Ahead is a consulting company in downtown Chicago that offers a variety of services for IT delivery. ...

I was recently approached to present the Keynote session for a few VMUG conferences and wanted to provide a perspective about the experience. Public Speaking is clearly not one of my top 10 things I’d like to spend my time doing. Being a Systems Engineer, I don’t mind explaining things to a small group of people, but for the most part am a pretty quiet and reserved person who would prefer to stay in the shadows. Don’t get me wrong, if asked to weigh in, I have had no problem providing feedback or participate in a conversation, especially if it’s something I’m knowledgeable about, but for the most part, I’m pretty shy. ...

A secured, remote connection to your data is a requirement for almost all network designs these days. Mobility, telecommuting and late night help desk calls have created an environment that needs to have access to the local network in a secure fashion. vCNS Edge can provide these services to your virtual infrastructure. In previous posts, I’ve walked through installing vCNS Manager and installing vCNS Edge appliances. These are prerequisites to setting up SSL VPN on the VMware vCloud Network and Security appliance.. ...

I recently purchased the HP 9470m EliteBook and wanted to give it a quick review. The Good The laptop has a pretty slim design as you would expect from an EliteBook. Be aware however that this is not as slim as a Mac b ook Air, or the Samsung Series 9 laptops. The good news though is that you don’t need to use a dongle just to plug in an Ethernet cable. The same goes for having a VGA output which I often use for presentations. It can be a pain to hunt down a dongle to connect to a wired network, or a projector so I give this Elitebook points for that. ...