Posts

VMware vCloud Networking and Security (vCNS) can provide Network Address Translation (NAT) services from the vCNS Edge appliance. There are two types of NAT that the edge appliance can provide. Destination NAT (DNAT) is used to provide access to a private IP Address from a (usually) public IP Address for incoming traffic. Source NAT (SNAT) is used to translate a private IP Address into a (usually) public IP Address for outgoing traffic. This type of NAT can also be called “masquerading”. (It’s a subtle difference that we won’t go into in this post.) ...

If you have an MCITP or similar certification from Microsoft on Server 2008 and want to keep your certifications up to date, chances are you will need to take the 70-417 exam. I recently sat this test and wanted to share some of my experiences with you. My certification background in Information Systems started with my journey to become an MCSE 2003 so Microsoft is kind of my first love when it comes to certs. I deal a little bit less with the day to day configuration and maintenance of Windows, but Windows Server will always have a certain place in my heart and I try to keep up to date with my credentials. ...

One of the most basic tasks that happens on a network is assigning IP Addresses. Once a VMware vCNS Edge appliance has been deployed, you can now hand out IP address through Dynamic Host Control Protocol (DHCP). In previous posts, I’ve walked through installing vCNS Manager and installing vCNS Edge appliances. These are prerequisites to setting up DHCP on the VMware vCloud Network and Security appliance. vCNS Edge DHCP Setup Log into your vShield Manager and click on the Datacenter. Click the “Network Virtualization” Tab where you’ll find the Edge appliance you’ve already deployed. Go to Actions and click “Manage”. ...

vCloud Networking and Security has the capabilities to provide edge services inside of your virtual environment. Edge firewalls, network address translation, DHCP, routing are all things that vCNS Edge can do for you. This post goes into the steps necessary to deploy vCNS Edge. I should mention that vCNS and the previous name vShield may be used interchangeably in this article. Logical Diagram The picture below is a diagram of what our environment will look like when we’re done. We have production VMs as you might expect, and our new vCNS Edge VM. We’ve also got our new Edge network and a Shielded VM which will not be connected to the production vSwitch directly. ...

We’ll be giving away a pair of the Sony MDR-X10 headphones courtesy of Veeam. If you’re in the market for a stylish set of shiny new headphones and don’t want to shell out hard earned cash for them, this is your lucky day. During the vsphere-land.com top virtualization blog contest I was fortunate enough to win a pair of these to give away on my site. Here is how you can win a pair of these headphones for yourself. ...

Each year Eric Siebert at vsphere-land.com has a voting process where you can cast your ballot for your favorite virtualization blogs. He lists those blogs on his vlaunchpad site if you’re curious to see who made the list. Luckily again this year my friends over at whateverinspires.com were kind enough to provide a logo for any bloggers who made this prestigious list. This year there are Gold, Silver, and Bronze badges depending on your status. If you made the list, please feel free to download the image and use it on your site. ...

If you’re a vSphere Administrator and have compliance regulations to deal with, vShield Endpoint might save you a lot of hassle. From my own experience with PCI-DSS, it was important to limit the cardholder data environment scope. The fewer devices that touch credit card data, the fewer items that had to be protected. In the same breath, it was important to have Anti-Virus, malware protection, firewall rules and file integrity monitoring. vShield Endpoint allows for all of these things to be handled in a single package. This post looks specifically at Trend Micro’s Deep Security Product. ...

In the first post in this series, we deployed the vShield Endpoint host driver and installed the Trend Micro Deep Security Manager on a Windows VM. Trend Micro Deep Security Appliance Deployment First, we need to login to the Deep Security Manager which is conveniently accessed as a web page. Go the the DNS name of the Manager that you entered during the setup wizard in part 1 of this series. Log in with the username and password that you specified. ...

The first parts of this series focused mainly on how to install the Trend Micro Deep Security product and how to prepare your environment. This post shows you a bit more of what can be accomplished with the product. vShield Endpoint Part 1 vSheidl Endpoint Part 2 Policies This is the guts of the product. All the configurations you’ve done up to this point have been leading up to a solution that can help secure your environment and possibly make it comply with a regulatory body. ...

CloudPhysics continually surprises me with their innovation when providing cards for simulation purposes. I’ve posted a couple of times already about how I really like their AWS pricing calculator (they also have vCHS as well). Having a good idea about how much your existing environment will cost if you make modifications is a pretty big win for a CIO. While I was at GestaltIT’s Virtualization Field Day 3, two weeks ago, Irfan Ahmed showed us a new card that would simulate how much SSD Cache you should buy based on your current workloads. ...