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Manage

Learn to apply best practices and optimize your operations.

• Understand the basics of VMware container technology

  In response to the popularity of container technology in enterprise infrastructure, VMware has developed its own support services and management tools to run Docker containers. Continue Reading

• Hybrid cloud, SDDC products boost quarterly VMware revenue

  According to VMware's Q3 2018 earnings report, the company received a nice boost from VMware Cloud on AWS, but NSX and vSAN remain the biggest contributors to VMware revenue. Continue Reading

• New partnership will give admins ability to migrate VMware to Azure

  After the initial contentious announcement of Azure Migrate, which will help migrate VMware to Azure, Microsoft and VMware will work together to develop the migration service. Continue Reading

• Execute PowerCLI commands to manage VMware infrastructure

  PowerCLI cmdlets like Get-VM can be built out to obtain information about VMs in a VMware infrastructure, including those with attached CD-ROMs and those with snapshots. Continue Reading

• What is VMware Remote Console and how do you run it?

  A vSphere administrator can use VMware Remote Console to remotely access a VM's peripherals, configuration and desktop remotely through the vSphere Web Client. Continue Reading

• Use SpoofGuard to defend against malicious activity in VMware NSX

  SpoofGuard monitors network traffic to identify malicious activity and prevent phishing attacks. Before you enable SpoofGuard in NSX, there are a few things you should know.Continue Reading

• Change VMkernel port MTU size to reduce packet fragmentation

  A high maximum transmission unit size creates fewer frames, which lowers the risk of collisions and reduces overhead. The key is figuring out how high an MTU size is too high.Continue Reading

• Manage ESXi updates to keep your environment running securely

  It's in an administrator's best interest to regularly check for ESXi updates and patches to make sure his system runs the most up-to-date version of the hypervisor.Continue Reading

• What happens when you violate affinity or anti-affinity rules?

  Just because VM placement is flexible doesn't mean you should take it for granted. Affinity rule conflicts can take a serious toll on the functionality of multiple VMware platforms.Continue Reading

• Use vROps Manager to perform system health monitoring

  VRealize Operations Manager is a system health monitoring tool that highlights issues in your virtual environment and steers you in the right direction for troubleshooting.Continue Reading

• How can a VM storage policy improve vSAN cluster redundancy?

  FTT dictates how many failures can occur in a vSAN cluster without sacrificing availability. How can you use a VM storage policy to define the amount of Failures To Tolerate?Continue Reading

• Use a combination of DRS rules and HA tags to manage workloads

  Distributed Resource Scheduler rules help with load balancing, and High Availability tags can reduce administrative fatigue in the event of an outage.Continue Reading

• Use SIOC to create and apply IOPS limits and storage policies

  VMware Storage I/O Control uses vSphere APIs for I/O Filtering to quickly establish and apply IOPS limits to VMs that regularly access your data store.Continue Reading

• Integrate Ceph object storage in a VMware vSphere environment

  It can be challenging to integrate Ceph in a VMware environment, but with the right interface, vSphere administrators can reap the rewards of object storage.Continue Reading

• Integrate vRealize Log Insight and NSX for centralized logging

  VMware added vRealize Log Insight NSX in version 6.2.3. This central logging system receives log entries from ESXi hosts and helps identify issues in your NSX deployment.Continue Reading

• Best practices to keep your vSphere environment secure

  VMware introduced a lot of new features that focused on security in vSphere 6.5. But, beyond those features, you can follow these practices to improve security.Continue Reading

• Deploy a virtual container host with vSphere Integrated Containers

  VMware vSphere Integrated Containers uses virtual container hosts and Docker commands to deploy, test and run virtual containers in a vSphere environment.Continue Reading

• Use the VMware Host Client to manage single ESXi hosts

  The VMware Host Client is faster and more secure than the vSphere Flash-based client, but it has yet to reach maturity. Here are some other tools you can use to manage ESXi hosts.Continue Reading

• Copying virtual machines with VMware vSphere Replication

  Now that you've completed the installation and configuration, it's time to walk through the process of how vSphere Replication works.Continue Reading

• Use automated vSphere Update Manager for more controlled patching

  The most recent version of vSphere Update Manager helps reduce the stress of patching hosts, VMs, virtual appliances and more. Set it up in just a few simple steps.Continue Reading

• Deconstructing disk capacity using VM thin provisioning

  Although thin provisioning promises to reduce the disk footprint of VMs, it can lead to an increase in disk capacity usage, making capacity monitoring absolutely essential.Continue Reading

• Scripting workflows with the VMware vRealize Orchestrator

  Understanding the essential elements of how vRealize Orchestrator workflows work is just the first step to increasing functionality, simplicity and compartmentalization.Continue Reading

• Creating virtual machine blueprints with vRealize Automation

  In this installation of our VMware vRealize deployment guide, we take an in-depth look at creating virtual machine blueprints and servers with vRealize Automation.Continue Reading

• Why production environment testing is better than a lab setting

  Should you test a monitoring tool in your production environment? Only if you want it to get an accurate look at the infrastructure.Continue Reading

• How to choose the right VMware type-2 hypervisor

  This guide can help decide which of VMware's hosted hypervisors best fits the needs of your data center environment.Continue Reading

• How to build your own virtual test lab

  A virtual test lab can give you a place to test patches and configuration changes -- and avoid the potential for downtime in the production environment.Continue Reading

• Taming data center disturbances with vRealize Operations Manager

  As more workloads and servers are virtualized, the vSphere administrator will need some kind of tool to help keep an eye on resources and make intelligent choices.Continue Reading

• The top 10 PowerCLI scripts for vSphere administrators

  There are numerous PowerCLI scripts to help a busy administrator get through the day. Here's a few highly recommended by one of our experts.Continue Reading

• Five popular VMware Flings to make your job easier

  If you're a vSphere administrator looking to save time and money in your troubleshooting endeavors, there are new utilities available for free on a routine basis at VMware's Flings site.Continue Reading

• Monitoring virtual CPU states to improve performance

  A good understanding of vCPU run, wait and ready states can help deliver more responsive VMs.Continue Reading

• What licensing is required to use vCloud Air?

  Potential users of VMware's vCloud Air offering may not know what type of tools they need to manage the hybrid cloud offering.Continue Reading

• How to create a VMware OVF virtual appliance

  Vendors can reduce potential issues by packaging VMs into a virtual appliance for customers. Here's how to create and modify the resulting OVF file.Continue Reading

• Virtual switch tweak optimizes ESXi networking

  Administrators in an ESXi environment should adjust the networking configuration to prevent slow VM migrations.Continue Reading

• Using clones as templates in VMware Workstation

  After you make sure the template is cleared of specifics, follow these steps to use clones as templates in VMware Workstation.Continue Reading

• How to hunt down VM network timeout issues with performance charts

  Setting up the performance counters in the vSphere client can help troubleshoot a dropped packets issue.Continue Reading

• How to stop worrying and learn to love the new vSphere Web Client

  Resistance is futile: If you want access to some of the new vSphere 5.5 features, then you need to get familiar with the vSphere Web Client.Continue Reading

• Tips and tools for virtual recovery and backup

  Guard the perimeter of your VMware virtual infrastructure with this comprehensive guide.Continue Reading

• What's the best number of virtual machines for a data store?

  The best number of virtual machines on each data store depends on, among other things, the performance needs of each virtual machine.Continue Reading

• The vdmadmin utility puts the VMware View administrator in command

  Using the vdmadmin tool, a VMware View administrator can make virtual desktops dance through command-line wizardry.Continue Reading

• The VMware infrastructure monitoring encyclopedia

  This infrastructure monitoring guide can help administrators maintain the health of their vSphere and vCloud environments.Continue Reading

• VMware vCenter Mobile Access (VMware vCMA)

  VMware vCenter Mobile Access (VMware vCMA) is a virtual appliance used by admins to manage a data center from mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.Continue Reading

• VMware DRS quiz: Rules, settings, requirements and best practices

  Knowing how to use VMware DRS is key to getting the most out of vSphere, so quiz yourself on its features. A high score could mean high utilization.Continue Reading

• Cloud management tasks that VMware vCAC can and cannot do with vCD

  VMware vCloud Director and vCloud Automation Center manage cloud resources together. But depending on your VMware vCAC version, they hardly interact.Continue Reading

• VMware View best practices for every stage of VDI implementation

  Whether your VDI implementation is in pilot or deployed enterprise-wide, these VMware View best practices will improve user and admin experiences.Continue Reading

• VMware vShield

  VMware vShield is a group of networking and security products for virtualized IT infrastructures, comprising vShield Manager, vShield Edge, vShield Zones, vShield App, vShield Data Security and vShield Endpoint.Continue Reading

• VMware vApp

  A VMware vApp is a collection of virtual machines (VMs) and sometimes other vApps that host a multi-tier application, its policies and service levels.Continue Reading

• VMware Workstation encryption prevents unauthorized VM access

  VMware Workstation encryption helps you protect information on VMs from unauthorized users. Learn how -- and when -- to encrypt virtual machines.Continue Reading

• VMware resource pool

  A VMware resource pool is the aggregated physical compute hardware -- CPU and memory, as well as other components -- allocated to virtual machines (VMs) in a VMware virtual infrastructure.Continue Reading

• Top five free tools from VMware Labs

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• Saving time with Project Onyx

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• More free VMware iPad and Android apps

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• Manage your VMs better with VMware Guest Console

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• Pop quiz: VMware snapshots 101

  VMware snapshots play an important part in backing up many virtual infrastructures, but how well do you understand how they work? Take this quiz to find out.Continue Reading

• Installing a CIM provider to improve vSphere Client host monitoring

  While ESXi includes support for many popular hardware platforms, comprehensive server health monitoring with the vSphere Client sometimes requires installing the correct CIM provider.Continue Reading

• VMware Lab Manager

  VMware Lab Manager is a software development and testing tool that enables designers and engineers to pool network and storage resources ... (Continued)Continue Reading

• ESXi console tech support mode: When the vSphere Client isn’t enough

  The ESXi console and its tech support mode can solve many issues that the vSphere Client can’t. Once enabled, you have the power of the Linux command line at your disposal.Continue Reading

• Configuring the ESXi firewall in VMware vSphere 5

  The ESXi 5 hypervisor has a new firewall, similar to the ESX firewall of yore. You can configure it through the vSphere Client or command line, depending on your preference.Continue Reading

• Deleting virtual machine snapshots without wasting disk space

  You can avoid wasting disk space and performance problems when deleting, or committing, virtual machine snapshots.Continue Reading

• Five VMware security breaches that should never happen

  Some VMware security breaches result from laziness, and sometimes the hard way is the only way to protect your VMs. Stay vigilant so these VMware security breaches won’t happen.Continue Reading

• Installing vCMA and VMware iPad app for remote vSphere management

  To manage vSphere with the VMware iPad app, the vCMA appliance must be installed. After the vCMA installation, you need to configure the VMware iPad app to manage vSphere.Continue Reading

• Top 10 VMware security tips for vShield users

  Installing VMware vShield is complex, but you can reduce the degree of difficulty with these 10 VMware security tips. They’re so easy, even a caveman could do them.Continue Reading

• Installing VMware vShield Zones for a virtual firewall

  VShield Zones is a virtual firewall that filters unauthorized network traffic. After installing VMware vShield Zones, add a license key to upgrade to vShield App.Continue Reading

• VMware Fusion performance tips for Mac users

  VMware Fusion for Mac allows you to run multiple guest OSes on Mac OS X, but VMware Fusion performance depends on several variables, including memory and hardware configuration.Continue Reading

• VMware management and performance monitoring guide

  There are lots of VMware management tools out there. This guide highlights the most important ones for VMware monitoring and offers best practices for improving VMware performance.Continue Reading

• VMware management software for the cloud: A square peg in round hole

  Originally, VMware management software was designed for virtualization. Now VMware is carrying over those principles to cloud management. But will it work or stifle cloud adoption?Continue Reading

• VMware vSphere's built-in performance monitoring tools

  VMware vSphere features several free performance monitoring tools that can help assess the health of your virtual machines and fix resource bottlenecks.Continue Reading

• Troubleshooting VMware snapshots

  Virtual machine (VM) snapshots are a great tool to identify problems with VMs. An expert explains troubleshooting common problems that arise with snapshots in VMware ESX Server.Continue Reading

• PowersHell: Factory Reset of ESXi

  During the course of my travels in powersHell with VMware – I’ve begun to put together my own JACS (Just-Another-Configuration-Script). The idea is to take a clean-factory set ESXi build, and use purely powersHell to configure it.Continue Reading

• VMware VI Client plug-ins and how to manage them

  VMware VI Client plug-ins can provide a VirtualCenter implementation with a functionality boost. Discover more on plug-in management tactics and plug-in options, including the Juxtaposition RDP plug-in, in this tip.Continue Reading

• Obtaining server health status in VMware ESX and VMware ESXi

  VMware ESXi can easily provide you with information about a server's CPU, memory, storage and more, but getting this info from ESX Server requires some additional steps.Continue Reading

• VMware Site Recovery Manager: How it can help you

  VMware's Site Recovery Manager (SRM) application enhances the disaster recovery capabilities of your virtual environment. An expert discusses SRM implementation and use in this tip.Continue Reading

• Improving VMware ESX Server performance: 10 best practices

  Follow these best practices regarding hardware considerations, virtual machine (VM) configurations and more to improve VM performance.Continue Reading

• VMware DRS and VMotion: Improve workload balance, prevent problems

  Learn how both VMware DRS and VMotion work individually, how they work together, and get configuration tips for optimal virtual machine performance in an environment that takes advantage of both technologies.Continue Reading

• Updated: Enabling VMotion from the CLI/Kickstart Script

  Describes how to enable VMotion from the CLI/Kickstart Script.Continue Reading