Do you have problems with a lack of space when using SQL express or setting up ODBC parameters before installing vCenter? So it’s time for you to think about VMware vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) – a pre-configured virtual appliance running Linux (Project Photon OS). It has been optimized specifically for vCenter services. What about the scale? VCSA supports up to 2000 hosts or 3500 VMs per appliance. Sounds good, right? In addition, VCSA provides enhanced security. Why wait? Take a step into the future!

VMware’s release of vSphere 6.7 U was launched in October 2018. What’s new? This release includes the necessary tools for convergence and repointing. An external Platform Services Controller (PSC) has sunk into oblivion and the client can move to a simplified embedded deployment. The HTML5 based vSphere Client is now fully functional and the vSphere SSO domain has gained more flexibility with support for embedded repointing. Not bad, right? Catch this wave!

Windows Server 2019 was released on the 4^th of October 2019. This was a very expected and highly attended release of the latest Microsoft Server Operating System (OS). Microsoft has also released a new free utility called Windows Admin Center (WAC), which can manage your whole production environment via a web-based console.

VMware OS Optimization Tool (OSOT) is a free tool provided by VMware Labs website. A website which is well known for the “Flings”, which are free utilities which helps IT admins in their day-to-day administration tasks. The utility uses templates which provides an easy way to disable windows services which aren’t mostly necessary. By disabling unnecessary services you’re basically make the system run more “light” so you’re saving resources which can be used for other programs.

VMware ESXi has an option which allows us to revert back to previous version after upgrade. You might need it in case you don’t see your network card (driver not on the ISO) or you see the NIC perfectly, but network isn’t stable after your upgrade.

Fairly often, unexperienced end users get caught on some website which uses malware or newly some crypto miners which uses up to 70% of your PCs power to mine a cryptocurrency for some hackers. So how to protect at best those end users? One of the new ways is to use Microsoft’s built-in utility called Windows Defender Application Guard (WDAG).The tool is designed for W10 Enterprise version only and the system has to support to run Hyper-V role. Microsoft introduced a new layer of defense-in-depth protection which uses Hyper-V for isolation purposes.

Before we dive into how to enable Active Directory Recycle Bin in Windows Server 2016, we will first explain what it is and when Microsoft introduced this feature. Active Directory Recycle Bin simply allows you to restore deleted objects from Active Directory. It can be a user account, computer account or a whole Organizational Unit (OU). Who did not accidentally delete an AD object in his career?
Without this feature enabled, you had only a few choices. Either you could restore if you used a backup solution allowing you to restore individual AD objects (many virtualization backup vendors do that nowadays). Or you have had less chance and your AD server wasn’t configured to be backed up and you have to recreate the user and reinstall his profile on his computer.

VMware vCenter server appliance is evolving with every major release of VMware vSphere Suite. The product, which manages the whole vSphere infrastructure, can be either installed on a Windows server or deployed as pre-configured virtual appliance called vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA). Over several VCSA releases, VMware managed to make this product equal to the Windows-based one, and it pushes the development even further so now the Linux based product has more features than the vCenter server installed on Windows. However, many VMware admins are also Microsoft guys and like the graphical user interface to work with. That’s why today we’ll have a look at 5 Tips to manage this appliance. We won’t go into the configuration steps within this post as this has been documented many times.

One of the best freeware applications which gather a lot of information about VMware vSphere id definitely RVTools utility. Today we’ll have a look at some features which are the most useful ones for IT admins. RVTools is a Windows .NET 4.0 application which uses the VI SDK to display information about your virtual environments. So, before you download and install the tool, you’ll need to check if your Windows system has at least .NET 4.0 installed.