While searching for a simple monitoring für my root servers, I’m stumbled over a python-based software called Simplemonitor. Other alternatives, like Nagios, or forks like Incinga etc., were a bit too much for my needs. What is SimpleMonitor? SimpleMonitor is a Python script which monitors hosts and network connectivity. It is designed to be quick and easy to set up and lacks complex features that can make things like Nagios, OpenNMS and Zenoss overkill for a small business or home network.

I don’t like to use untrusted networks. When I have to use such a network, e.g. an open WiFi network, I use a TLS encrypted tunnel connection to encrypt all web traffic that travels through the untrusted network. I’m using a simple stunnel/ Squid setup for this. My setup consists of three components: Stunnel (server mode) Squid proxy Stunnel (client mode) What is stunnel? Stunnel is an OSS project that uses OpenSSL to encrypt traffic.

I switched my mobile carrier and my new carrier doesn’t offer multi SIM (but hey, it’s cheap and sufficient for my needs). Now I have to use my iPhone as WiFi hotspot. No big deal, works perfect. Except one thing: When I was using the built-in 4G modem in my laptop, Windows 10 knew that it was using a mobile (metered) connection, and suspended some services like OneDrive sync, download of Windows Updates etc.

TL;DR: There’s a script at the bottom of the page that fixes the issue. Some days ago, this HPE customer advisory caught my attention: Advisory: (Revision) VMware - HPE ProLiant Gen8 Servers running VMware ESXi 5.5 Patch 10, VMware ESXi 6.0 Patch 4, Or VMware ESXi 6.5 May Experience Purple Screen Of Death (PSOD): LINT1 Motherboard Interrupt And there is also a corrosponding VMware KB article: ESXi host fails with intermittent NMI PSOD on HP ProLiant Gen8 servers

Today, I had a very interesting discussion. As part of an ongoing troubleshooting process, console screenshots of virtual machines should be created. The colleagues, who were working on the problem, already found a PowerCLI script that was able to create screenshots using the Managed Object Reference (MoRef). But unfortunately all they got were black screens and/ or login prompts. Latter were the reason why they were unable to run the script unattended.

When I talk to customers and colleagues about cloud offerings, most of them are still concerned about the cloud, and especially about the security of public cloud offerings. One of the most mentioned concerns is based on the belief, that each and every cloud-based VM is publicly reachable over the internet. This can be so, but it does not have to. It relies on your design. Maybe that is only a problem in germany.

Last Wednesday, VMware has published a list with the vExperts for 2017. The wait is over, vExpert 2017 has been announced at https://t.co/lNE1KzAG3n. Thank you to everyone who applied. pic.twitter.com/N466wz1p29 — VMware vExpert (@vExpert) February 8, 2017 I’m on this list. I’m on this list for the fourth time, which makes me very happy and proud. I was surprised that I’m on this list. I have written only a few blog posts last year.

Two 3PAR StoreServs running in a Peer Persistence setup lost the connection to the Quorum Witness appliance. The appliance is an important part of a 3PAR Peer Persistence setup, because it acts as a tie-breaker in a split-brain scenario. While analyzing this issue, I saw this message in the 3PAR Management Console: Patrick Terlisten/ vcloudnine.de/ Creative Commons CC0 In addition to that, the customer got e-mails that the 3PAR StoreServ arrays lost the connection to the Quorum Witness appliance.

A RemoteApp is an application, that is running on a Remote Desktop Session Host (RDSH), and only the display output is sent to the client. Because the application is running on a RDSH, you can easily deliver applications to end users. Another benefit is, that data is not leaving the datacenter. Software and data are kept inside the datacenter. RemoteApps can be used and deployed in various ways: Users can start RemoteApps through the Remote Desktop Web Access Users can start RemoteApps using a special RDP file Users can simply start a link on the desktop or from the start menu (RemoteApps and Desktop connections deployed by an MSI or a GPO) or they can click on a file that is associated with a RemoteApp Even in times of VDI (LOL…), RemoteApps can be quite handy.

Patrick Terlisten/ vcloudnine.de/ Creative Commons CC0 Certificates are always fun… or should I say PITA? Whatever… During a small Horizon View PoC, I noticed an error message for the View Connection Server. That’s right, Mr. Connection Server. The certificate subject name does not match the servers external URL, as this screenshot clearly shows. Patrick Terlisten/ vcloudnine.de/ Creative Commons CC0 But both settings are unused, because a VMware Access Point appliance is in place.