Storage Field Day 3 awesomeness

Posted by Arjan Timmerman on apr 23, 2013 in Geen categorie | 1 comment

Tomorrow will be the start of Storage Field Day 3 in Denver. I had a great flight here and we landed in a winter wonderland . Storage Field 3 promises to be a great event (once again) with great companies presenting:

And even a secret company coming out of slealth… So make sure you’ll tune in here:

The delegate list is also an impressive one, with the following names:

 Brandon Riley on twitter Brandon can be found at @BrandonJRiley

 Chris Wahl and can be found on twitter as @ChrisWahl

 Enrico Signoretti found on twitter as @ESignoretti

 Howard Marks found on twitter as @DeepStorageNet

 Ilja Coolen found on twitter as @ICoolen

 John Obeto found on twitter as @JohnObeto

 Justin Paul found on twitter as @recklessop

 Lauren Malhoit found on twitter as @Malhoit

 Luca Dell’Oca found on twitter as @dellock6

 Marco Broeken found on twitter as @MBroeken

 Matt Simmons found on twitter as @StandaloneSA

 Rick Schlander found on twitter as @VMRick

 Roy Mikes found on twitter as @teovmy

As said a great delegate line-up and this is all thanks to the great work of:

 Stephen Foskett found on twitter as @SFoskett

and

 Claire Chaplais found on twitter as @CChaplais

A big thanks for the both of them as they do a great job spoiling us

This SFD there will be a new video and audio system that should solve the problem of not hearing the questions from the delegates. If you experience this is not working as it should be, please contact us or the people that do the great job getting all Techfield days recorded:

 Benjamin Freedman found on twitter as @PrimeImageBen

and

 Andrea Perry found on twitter as @arperry

Make sure you’ll tune in!!

PHD’s road to the Cloud!

Posted by Arjan Timmerman on mrt 28, 2013 in PHD Virtual | 0 comments

A few months ago I reviewed the 6.0 version backup tool from PHD Virtual. A couple of months later I wrote a post on what’s new in version 6.1 . PHD has introduced their next major update 6.2 and I finally had the chance to review this new major update.

The installation

The thing I really love about PHD Virtual backup is the simplicity of installation. Once you have downloaded and extracted the zip file, the installation of the PHD virtual Appliance is as simple as deploying a OVF. Just follow these steps:

In the vCenter Manager window choose File and click on Deploy OVF Template… In the popup window Browse for the PHDVBA.ovf file and click Next

In the OVF Template Details window click Next

In the Name and Location window provide a VM name, choose the inventory location and click Next

In the Hos / Cluster window select the Cluster which will host the VM and then click Next

In the Specify a specific host window select the host where the VM will land on and click Next

In the Storage window select the Datastore the VM will land on and click Next

make your choive for the Disk Format you want to use and click Next

In the Network Mapping select the network the VM will be on and click Next

In the Ready to Complete window check all settings, check the Power on after deployment checkbox and click Finish

That’s it… The OVF will be deployed and when this is done you must install the PHDVirtualBackup Client installation package. After this you should reconnect to your vCenter server.

Setup CloudHook

After installation you should change a couple of configuration settings to get be able to backup to one of the Cloud Storage providers supported by PHD:

• Amazon S3
• Google Cloud Storage
• Rackspace Cloud Files
• OpenStack/Swift

In vCenter right click the VM and go to PHD Virtual Backup –> Console

In the Console Choose Configuration –> Write Space and configure an attached virtual disk

After this is done go to Backup Storage and give in the cloud storage provider and fill in the details provided by the provider you’ve choosen.

After this I needed to finetune some settings on both sides and I was able to start doing a backup to the cloud…

Conclusion

First of all I would like to say to PHD: Job well done guys! As said in earlier posts “PHD Virtual provides mature, easy to install, and easy to use software.” Providing “Build in Data reduction”, “Assured security”,”Rollback Recovery”, “Flexible Retention” and “Forever Incremental Backups” you get a great product that works very well. PHD makes BAAS easy. Again, job well done.

Deep Security 9 Part 3: The Deep Security Manager

Posted by Arjan Timmerman on mrt 21, 2013 in VMware, vShield | 1 comment

In part 1 we installed the VMware vShield part which is needed to get Trend Micro Deep Security up and running. In part 2 we created a database instance that will be used by the Deep Security Manager (DSM). In this part we’ll focus on the installation of the DSM itself. The DSM is the management interface used to manage and monitor the Deep Security environment. You will use this to deploy Deep Security Virtual Appliance (DSVA) instances as well as creating scan profiles, monitor the Deep Security infrastructure and more.

Let’s install the DSM now, first we’ll need to make sure we’ll have the right software (can be downloaded here):

After you’ve downloaded and extracted the Deep Security Manager files, doubleclick on the manager execution file

The Setup will start and in the Welcome screen Click Next

In the License Agreement screen select I accept.. and then click Next

In the Select Destination Directory screen Browse to the destination folder and Click Next

In the database screen select and setup the right Database setup (as created in part 2) and click Next

In the License screen provide your License activation code and press Next

In the Adress and Ports screen provide the FQDN of the DSM and click Next

In the credentials screen Provide a Username (MasterAdmin is standard) and a password and click Next

In the security update window leave the defaults and click Next

In the Co-located Relay screen select Yes and include AntiMalware and click Next

In the Smart Protection Network screen Enable Trend Micro Smart Feedback and click Next

In the confirm Settings click finish to install the DSM

After the installation is finished open a browser and browse to the FQDN (httpS://yourdsm.xxx:4119) of the DSM in the logon screen provide the username and password to log in to the DSM

After Login the DSM interface will look like this

In Part 4 we’ll install a Deep Security Virtual Appliance (DSVA). See you there And if you have any question please let me know.

The VMware vExpert 2013 nomination

Posted by Arjan Timmerman on mrt 21, 2013 in VMware | 0 comments

Today VMware (John Troyer) opened the VMware vExpert 2013 application program. As a vExpert 2012 I know how awesome it is to be in this awesome group of people. I’ll quote John for what the vExpert title is all about:

Each year, we bring together in the vExpert Program the people who have made some of the most important contributions to the VMware community. These are the bloggers, book authors, VMUG leaders, speakers, tool builders, community leaders and general enthusiasts. They work as IT admins and architects for VMware customers, they act as trusted advisors and implementors for VMware partners or as independent consultants, and some work for VMware itself. All of them have the passion and enthusiasm for technology and applying technology to solve problems. They have contributed to the success of us all by sharing their knowledge and expertise over their days, nights, and weekends. They are, quite frankly, the most interesting and talented group of people I’ve ever been in a room with.

There are three paths that you can follow for becoming a vExpert:

Evangelist Path
The Evangelist Path includes book authors, bloggers, tool builders, public speakers, VMTN contributors, and other IT professionals who share their knowledge and passion with others with the leverage of a personal public platform to reach many people. Employees of VMware can also apply via the Evangelist path. A VMware employee reference is recommended if your activities weren’t all in public or were in a language other than English.

Customer Path
The Customer Path is for leaders from VMware customer organizations. They have been internal champions in their organizations, or worked with VMware to build success stories, act as customer references, given public interviews, spoken at conferences, or were VMUG leaders. A VMware employee reference is recommended if your activities weren’t all in public.

VPN (VMware Partner Network) Path
The VPN Path is for employees of our partner companies who lead with passion and by example, who are committed to continuous learning through accreditations and certifications and to making their technical knowledge and expertise available to many. This can take shape of event participation, video, IP generation, as well as public speaking engagements. A VMware employee reference is required for VPN Path candidates.

This year it is possible again to Recommend someone for the vExpert Title. When you know someone that goes above and beyond whenever it comes to VMware make sure to recommend her/him at this site:

http://blogs.vmware.com/vmtn/2013/03/vexpert-2013-applications-are-now-open.html

Deep Security 9 Part 2: The Database

Posted by Arjan Timmerman on mrt 15, 2013 in VMware, vShield | 0 comments

Yesterday in the first part of this blog series on installing Trend Micro Deep Security 9 we installed the VMware vShield Manager as well as the vShield Endpoint on the hosts in our environment. The last prerequisite is the setup of the database for the DSM. This Database can be an Microsoft SQL or Oracle Database. While installing the Deep Security Manager you’ll have the option to install a build in that will only be able to support about 10 VM’s…..

The Database will grow fast, and an Microsoft SQL Express Database which has a limit of 4GB will be suitable for about 50 VM’s. Take that in mind when you’re doing a Proof of concept an thinking about using this kind of database.

With all that being said, let’s setup a database for the Deep Security Manager (I’ll use SQL2012 in this case):

Open the Microsoft SQL server management Studio:

In the Connect to Server windows choose your authentication method and press Connect:

Right Click on Databases and select New Database:

Provide a name for the database, select a database owner and press OK (leave the rest default):

If everything went well the database will be created and show in the Databases tab:

This step is the last one needed to begin the install of the Trend Micro Deep Security Manager. See you next time, and again when ever you have questions please feel free to contact me

Deep Security 9 Part 1: Installing the vShield Manager and Endpoint

Posted by Arjan Timmerman on mrt 14, 2013 in VMware, vShield | 0 comments

Installing Deep Security is not that hard. In this post I’ll walk you through the first step of getting Deep Security up and running in your virtual environment. The installation of vShield Manager.

In order to get Trend Micro Deep Security running a couple of prerequisites need to be in place. The prerequisites that need to be in place are:

• The vShield Manager
• The vShield Endpoint (installed on every host)
• A Database (SQL or Oracle)

Let’s start with installing the vShield Manager. In order to this you’ll have to download the vShield Manager here. After the download is done, open vCenter and go to File –> Deploy OVF Template (Press picture for larger image)

In the Source window Click Browse

Browse to the vShield Manager OVA file and Open it

Click Next in the Source window

In the OVF Template Details click Next

In the End User License Agreement click Accept and click Next

In the Name and Location window Provide a vSM name and click Next

In the Host / Cluster window select the Cluster you want the vSM to be in and click Next

In the Specify a Specific Host select a host and click Next

In the Storage window choose the datastore you want to use and click Next

In the Disk Format window choose the format you want to use and click Next

In the Ready to Complete window Select Power on after Deployment and Press Finish

The deployment of the OVF will start and after this is complete open the vSM Console window

To log in to vSM use the Default username: admin and password: default

• Provide a IP Address
• Subnet Mask
• Default gateway
• Primary (and secondary) DNS

Open a webbrowser and surf to the IP address you just provided for the vSM

Log in with the admin account (user: admin pw: default)

Edit the vCenter Server settings so the vSM is able to communicate with the vSphere environment

The installation of the vSM is now done. To install vShield Endpoint on the hosts perforn these steps

In vSM browse to the host you want vShield Enpoint to be installed on and click Install

In the next we’ll install the Trend Micro Deep Security Manager. If you have questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me.

Zerto brings Disaster Recovery to the next level

Posted by Arjan Timmerman on feb 26, 2013 in Zerto | 0 comments

Today Zerto announced the Zerto Virtual Replication version 3.0. While I’ve always been impressed by the Zerto product, I think this version of the takes Disaster Recovery to the next level. As you can see in the following table, the 3.0 enhancements are very powerful:

The 3.0 Additions I like best:

• Remote Office Brache Office Protection - Companies with remote offices (but using a single vCenter) now have the possiblity to Protect even the VMs in their Remote sites using Zerto Virtual Replication 3.0
• Test-before-you-commit function - This feature gives you the oppertunity to test a failover point before you take the final step of commiting it.
• VMware vCloud Director 5.1 integration - This feature provides you the oppertunity to protect your Privat (Hybrid) Cloud the right way. Even protecting vApps, Storage Profiles, Org Networks and more.
• VMware VCloud Automation Center integration – VMware provide this software to make automation within your Cloud easier. With Zerto intergrating within vCAC the automation of your cloud will be even better

Watch this video for some great information about Zerto Virtual Replication:

Press release by Zerto can be find here: http://www.zerto.com/news-events/press-releases/zerto-virtual-replication-3-0/