Coming soon!
There are a couple of great websites that have a large collection of Visio stencils. When you’re in need of something more than the basic set of stencils that is included with Visio then look no further!
Veeam provides a free collection of VMware and Hyper-V virtualization Visio stencils that can be used by ESX administrators, system integrators and datacenter managers to create their own diagrams in Microsoft Visio 2003, 2007, 2010 or 2013 as part of your Hyper-V or VMware deployment planning.
Download the Veeam VMware and Hyper-V stencils direct from Veeam here:
There are also tons of vendor specific visio stencils on VisioCafe. VisioCafe is an independent non-profit web site for the gathering together of IT industry Visio collections:
For those of you still using a spreadsheet for tracking IP addresses – it’s time to graduate! A couple of months ago I was looking around for free web based IPAM software. I wanted to be able to track the IP’s I have in use on my home/lab network and I also was consulting for a client that was looking for the same type of solution. There is quite the list of IPAM related software and many more unlisted options. Believe me – I looked and tried almost all of them (the free ones anyway).
When it came down to it, the ones that stood out were phpIPAM and GestióIP. After using both for a couple of weeks it was clear that phpIPAM was the winner. While both have different strengths and weaknesses – phpIPAM was both aesthetically pleasing and had the feature set I was looking for. At the time I was using version 0.9 of phpIPAM and since then they have released new versions which I was even more impressed with.
Full List of Features:
- IPv4 / IPv6 address management
- Domain authentication (AD) / OpenLDAP authentication
- Per-group permissions
- Multiple level of nested subnets
- Visual subnet display
- IPv4 / IPv6 address calculator
- VRF support
- VLAN management
- Device management
- RIPE import
- Import / export XLS files
- User management
- E-Mail notification with IP details
- IP database search
- IP request module
- IP range adding / editing / deleting
- Custom IP/subnet/userVLAN address fields
phpIPAM uses a clean bootstrap interface, includes LDAP support out of the box, has automatic host availability checks, and is very customizable. It’s very easy to get setup and I had it running on CentOS 6.5 LAMP server in a matter of minutes. I would highly recommend it for small to mid sized environments looking for a cost effective (free!) IPAM solution.
What IPAM software would you recommend? Let me know in the comments below!
This is just a friendly heads up for anyone who may still have VMware vSphere 4.x (ESX, ESXi, and vCenter 4.x) in their environment.
We have quickly approached the end of vSphere 4.x General Support phase on May 21st, 2014. This means that there will be no more maintenance updates / upgrades, security patches, bug fixes, new hardware support, or server / client / guest OS updates. This support is only provided during the General Support Phase which begins on the date of general availability of a Major Release (“GA”) and lasts for a fixed duration (typically 5 years).
Support will still be available through the 2-year Technical Guidance Phase but it’s limited to providing existing security patches, bug fixes, and workarounds for non-business critical issues. Be aware that there is no phone support for a product that has reached the Technical Guidance phase of its lifecycle.
- For a full list of VMware products lifecycles, check out the VMware Lifecycle Product Matrix.
- For the official lifecycle support phases list checkout the VMware Support Policies.
I came across a gotcha scenario when trying to deploy vSAN in my home lab. When adding disks to the nested ESXi server all of the disks are detected as regular ol’ spindle disks regardless of the actual underlying storage. So I was in need of a method to emulate an SSD device. Truth be told there are actually many other reasons why you might want to emulate a SSD disk.
The solution is easy! It’s just one simple edit to the virtual machine’s configuration file (VMX). As long as you’re running virtual machine hardware version 8 or later you can configure a specific virtual disk to appear as an SSD.
scsiX:Y.virtualSSD = 1
X represents the controller ID and Y is the disk ID of the virtual disk.
This is targeted to my Canadian readers. Canada has come out with a new Anti-Spam law, dubbed “CASL“. It will affect you if you use email marketing to promote your business to customers and prospects in Canada.
Effective July 1st 2014, when you send commercial email, instant messages, or other electronic marketing messages to residents in Canada, you’re going to have to make sure you are in compliance with the new regulations or face hefty fines. Here’s what you’ll need in order to comply with Canada’s anti-spam legislation:
- Consent from the recipient, either expressed or implied.
- Clear identification on the message (your business name and contact information).
- An unsubscribe mechanism – basically, a way for the recipient to inform you to stop sending them messages in the future.
What’s the point of enacting these three rules?
According to the Government of Canada’s web page for the Anti-Spam Legislation, it’s all about improving online protection for Canadians while “ensuring that businesses can compete in a global marketplace.”
The goal behind the new law is to stop unwanted emails and text messages. Even if the promotional messages you send to customers don’t look like total “SPAM!” you could still be at risk for severe penalties if you don’t follow the new rules. Express consent is required before sending any email. That means that people have to explicitly say they want to receive email, by either checking a box or putting in an email address in a place that clearly states you will be receiving email.
Penalties include:
- Up to $1 million fines for individuals
- Up to $10 million fines for companies
Read more about the new CASL law here: http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/casl-lcap.htm
Questions? Comments? Tell me your thoughts in the comment section below!