VMware has released information on few vulnerabilities covering Workstation, Player, Fusion, Horizon View Client and NSX: “VMware Security Advisory VMSA-2017-0018.1 – VMware Workstation, Fusion and Horizon View Client updates resolve multiple security vulnerabilities” and “VMware Security Advisory VMSA-2017-0019 – NSX for vSphere update addresses NSX Edge Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) issue”.
Veeam Vanguard Nominations 2018
Back in 2015, Veeam launched a global influencer program” called Veeam Vanguard. Program was organized by Rick Vanover (MVP, vExpert, Cisco Champion) together with a team of other vExperts and MVPs (Doug Hazelman, Luca Dell’Oca, Clint Wyckoff).
“The Veeam Vanguard Program is a hand-selected list of people of all backgrounds who Veeam feels embraces our brand best in their communities. Some Vanguards are bloggers, some are active on our Veeam Forums, some are active on Spiceworks sharing a lot of Veeam-specific information and the list goes on for all of the ways Vanguards have engaged.” – Rick Vanover
Fast forward to 2017, and for the third edition of the program we have 61 Veeam Vanguards from 26 countries. Among them I noticed people well-known from VMware community, like Andrea Mauro, Christian Mohn, John Nicholson, Liselotte Foverskov, Mike Preston, Vladan Seget, Paul Braren, Andreas Lesslhumer, David Hill, Pete Flecha, or Melissa Palmer. For a full list of Vanguards, you can check the official list.
We’ll move now to current days, with exciting news: nominations for Veeam Vanguard 2018 edition are open! Veeam plans to expand the program this year. Vanguards have privileged access to Product Strategy Team, product betas and briefings. You can nominate yourself or someone you know it fits the profile. Nominations will be accepted until 29 December 2017.
AWSome Day 2017 in Romania
November is a good month for Amazon Web Services lovers from Romania: Bittnet and AWS are hosting not one, but two editions of AWSome Day! AWSome Day is a free introductory one-day event, based on the official AWS Technical Essentials course. Bittnet is the only authorized AWS Training Partner in Romania, and also holds AWS Consulting Partner status.
This is the third consecutive year in which Romanian users can attend this type of event. I have attended the first edition held at Hotel Novotel in Bucharest in October 2015 and it was a great event. Excellent content for an AWS introduction and a great networking opportunity.
VMware Security Advisory VMSA-2017-0017
VMware has released a new security advisory: “VMSA-2017-0017 – VMware vCenter Server update resolves LDAP DoS, SSRF and CLRF injection issues“.
VMSA-2017-0017 advisory covers two issues affecting VMware vCenter Server:
- CVE-2017-4927 – VMware vCenter Server doesn’t correctly handle specially crafted LDAP network packets which may allow for remote DoS. This issue affects vCenter Server 6.5 and 6.0. vCenter Server 6.5 Update 1 and 6.0 Update 3c fix this issue.
- CVE-2017-4928 – SSRF and CRLF injection issues in vSphere web client. An attacker may exploit the Flash-based vSphere Web Client by sending a POST request with modified headers towards internal services leading to information disclosure. This issue affects vCenter Server 6.0 and 5.5. vCenter Server 6.0 Update 3c and 5.5 Update 3f fix this issue.
How to Install vSphere HTML5 Web Client Fling
VMware agrees that Flash is not the solution for the long-term. Our long-term direction is to utilize HTML5. In vSphere 6.5, we have released a supported version of an HTML5 based web client which we call “vSphere Client”. What’s New in vSphere 6.5: vCenter management clients
This vSphere HTML5 Web Client evolved from an application initially published as a Fling (“Flings are apps and tools built by our engineers and community that are intended to be played with and explored”). The Web Client made available in vCenter is a fully supported version of the fling. However, VMware updates the fling version of the client more often. Even if the fling version is not supported, it’s still good to play with what will eventually graduate to a supported version.
In this article I will guide you through the initial configuration of vSphere HTML5 Web Client Fling. We will install the fling in parallel with the existing vCenter Server and will make no permanent changes at vCenter level. If you want to update an already existing installation of the fling, check this article: How to Update vSphere HTML5 Web Client Fling.
I will demonstrate how to install vSphere HTML5 Web Client Fling on top of vCenter Server Appliance 6.5 with an embedded PSC.
I will start the process with the download of the OVA file. Go to the VMware Fling repository and download the latest version available (in my case v3.27 – Build 7055108, released on 4th November 2017). Check “I have read…” checkbox and choose the OVA file from the drop down list (in my case h5ngcVA-3.27.0.0-7055108_OVF10.ova). You can then click on “Download” button and wait for the archive to be downloaded.
Free e-book: VMware vSphere 6.5 Host Resources Deep Dive
I have to admit, this post comes earlier than planned. I am still reading “VMware vSphere 6.5 Host Resources Deep Dive” by Frank Denneman and Niels Hagoort. See above, third part of the book (“Storage Resources”), chapter 14 (“Non-volatile Memory Architecture”), page 331. Printed version, no search function available yet.
Why do I write this now? Because Rubrik and VMUG have an early Christmas gift for us. After Rubrik gave away at VMworld 2000 free copies of the printed version of “VMware vSphere 6.5 Host Resources Deep Dive”, they partnered with VMUG and decided to further support the community by providing a free PDF version of the book. If you are in a rush, go to Rubrik site and download the e-book. If you prefer the printed version, sorry, but you will have to pay for it @Amazon.
How to Update ESXi 6.5 with Update Manager
In this article I will demonstrate how to easily update ESXi 6.5 using Update Manager.
In this demonstration I will use vCenter Update Manager, so I must have the proper vCenter version already installed. As a rule of thumb, you always need to update vCenter Server before ESXi (vSphere). Update process for VMware solutions can be tricky, so for specific order update for VMware products I suggest you to check KB2147289.
Note: If you look for VCSA update instructions, check this article: How to Update vCenter Server Appliance to 6.5 Update 1b.
Check vCenter and ESXi versions
I will connect to my vCenter Server using vSphere Web Client and I will check the vCenter version. As you can see below, I am running vCenter version 6.5.0, build 6816762, which is the latest version at the moment I am writing this article.
Next, I will check ESXi version. I navigate in the left panel to the ESXi server I plan to update (esx1.lab.local). In the right panel, I can see the installed product: VMware ESXi 6.5.0 build 5310536.
I will use now my.vmware.com site.to find the latest version for ESXi 6.5. As you can see below, latest build is 6765664. Take note of the Bulletin Number, we will use it later: ESXi650-201710401-BG.
Cloud Events for November 2017
November is a full month for cloud enthusiasts, with great cloud events both in United States and Europe, including one of the most important IT conference of the year (in my opinion, of course), which is AWS re:Invent.
AWS re:Invent 2017
Las Vegas, Nevada, will host this month the biggest AWS event of the year, AWS re:Invent 2017. Between 27 November and 1 December, you can attend over 1,000 breakout sessions, hackathons, bootcamps, labs, and workshops. Tickets are nearly sold out, hurry to secure your place.
If you can’t attend in person, you can still register for the live streaming of the keynotes. You can watch both keynotes (Andy Jassy, CEO, Amazon Web Services, and Werner Vogels, CTO, Amazon.com) and Tuesday Night Live featuring Peter DeSantis, VP, AWS Global Infrastructure.
How to Update vCenter Server Appliance to 6.5 Update 1b
On 26 October 2017, VMware released VMware vCenter Server 6.5 Update 1b. In this article I will show you how to easily update vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) from version 6.5.x to the latest 6.5 Update 1b using vCenter Server Appliance Management Interface (VAMI). This version is also identified by version number 6.5.01100 and build number 6816762 (you can check KB2143838 for all vCenter build and version numbers – unfortunately VMware is a little behind to update this KB article).
Note: If you look for VCSA installation instructions, check this article: How to Install VCSA 6.5 (VMware vCenter Server Appliance).
In my case, I will update vCenter Server Appliance from 6.5.0.5500 build 5318154 to the latest 6.5.0.11000 build 6816762. I will start by accessing VAMI, on port 5480 of the vCenter Server (https://vcenter.lab.local:5480/ for my lab). I will authenticate with root user and corresponding password.
VMUG Romania Survey
Together with Razvan Ionescu and Mihai Huica, I try to find ways to make VMUG Romania meetings more attractive.
For now, we try to gather more details about our audience and about the needs of all the participants. We came out with a survey: we want to know what they use in their day-to-day activities and about which topics they want to learn about. We are also interested to find few logistics details (like on which part of Bucharest is preferred or when is the best time to run the meetings).
To keep things short, this is an invite for all VMware users from Romania to tell us what they think we can improve at VMUG Romania. Nothing to worry, it’s an anonymous survey, hosted by Google, we don’t collect any personal data.
Click here for VMUG Romania Survey
If you want to find more details about our meetings, you can read a report on the latest VMUG Romania meeting.
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