File servers and hosted shares on Microsoft Windows have shares and permissions not necessarily known to everybody in the environment. With cybersecurity in mind, you’ll sooner or later have to share and/or migrate files, folders, and user profiles. There is no one solution, but you can consider several to keep in mind when it comes to migration.

There are various options to ensure backup safety today. The 3-2-1 backup rule (3 copies of data, on 2 different media, 1 of them being off-site) is a must. But it’s not enough. Keeping your backups in an independent network separate from Windows Active Directory, privilege managing, using backup software, like StarWind VTL — these and other extra steps are necessary to ensure thorough data protection.

vSphere 7 Update 2 adds to the functionality of Lifecycle Manager (vLCM), including new capabilities for ESXi lifecycle management at the cluster level. You can now remediate hosts with business priorities and leverage fast upgrades, configure Quick Boot for OEM solutions, upgrade without migrating host VMs, and do other cool stuff.

Traditionally, you would have to configure and manage virtual networks for each ESXi host and virtual machine (VM). VMware vSphere Distributed Switch (VDS) simplifies that. VDS offers centralized provisioning, monitoring, and management of virtual networks for selected hosts and VMs, making daily operations more convenient.

More and more people turn to hyperconverged infrastructures each year because, well, they do have a lot to offer. Many people are starting with such well-known and admirable solutions as VMware vSAN, enabling you to replace physically shared storage. That is an excellent choice, but there are a few things you need to know before you start.

Along with various recent updates, VMware released its new version of vSphere Replication 8.4. It’s a free perk that comes included with the vSphere package and has a limited potential to enable and operate VM replication to remote locations. Although it’s quite a basic feature, it can still provide valuable benefits for small deployments scenarios.

Good understanding of storage is vital to every IT admin, freshman or not. vSphere continues to innovate how it uses storage, so it’s better to brush up on existing ways before getting into novelties. So before checking out vSphere 7 and Tanzu with their Paravirtual Container Storage Interface (pvCSI), let’s repeat the core material.

In large infrastructures, there may be clusters of hosts that require patching. A full reboot would take quite a long time. Now, vSphere Lifecycle Manager (vLCM) has a quick boot option (a kind of a warm boot), which allows for a much smoother boot. Additionally, the “desired state” image of the cluster feature will ensure that new hosts that differ for some reason from the “image” will be remediated to the desired state.

VMware VEBA is a tool that allows you to create event-driven automation with the ability to trigger custom or pre-built actions depending on your vSphere event. It’s currently distributed as a Fling and available as a virtual appliance, deployed via an OVA file. It’s easily deployable on-premises to your vSphere or in a public cloud if you’re using that scenario.