Author Archives: Vincent Ran

Define Customized Virtual Disk Name in Azure Windows Virtual Machine Deployment

There is no doubt that one of the most common Azure operations is to deploy Windows virtual machine. In most cases, deploying an Azure Windows Server is to utilize the Windows Server deploy wizard in Marketplace, which is also the easiest way in most scenarios.

However, by utilizing the deployment Wizard, we cannot choose the Virtual disk name. The virtual disk name will be automatically populated with an Azure predefined format.

This post to introduce one of the ways to allow user to define the virtual disk name by utilizing the “Azure Templates”. The method used in this post can also be used to define other Azure element name in virtual machines.

Continue reading

Replace vCenter certificate with customer issued cert via vSphere Client

For VCSA appliance, if a customer CA-signed certificate is required, there are two ways to generate the CSR and replace the certificate:

  1. VMware Certificate Manager in command; and
  2. Certificate Management in vSphere Client

The 1st option is commonly used and described as in below VMware KB article:

https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2112277

This post is to illustrate the second way by using vSphere Client.

Continue reading

Configure Cassandra Backup in Commvault

Commvault supports backing up Cassandra database. Cassandra is a distributed database that can handle large amounts of data on multiple nodes. For Cassandra version 3, Commvault support backup log files as well. This post is to outline the high level steps to configure the Cassandra backup in Commvault.

The below configuration applied to Cassandra version 3 and Commvault version 11.18.

Continue reading

NetApp AFF Storage Efficiency Field Tips

This is a post to provide some field tips for user who would like to maximum the storage utilization of NetApp AFF storage. All the recommendation is based the field experience and for reference only.

There are a few aspects to consider about the storage efficient in NetApp AFF storage

  • In-line Deduplication
  • Background Deduplication
  • Aggregate Planning
  • Thin Disk
  • Snapshot
  • Space Reclamation

Continue reading

VMware vCenter Enhanced Linked Mode with Cisco HyperFlex

When configuring HyperFlex cluster, each HyperFlex cluster is required to register to a VMware vCenter server. For customer with multiple HyperFlex clusters and vCenter servers, VMware enhanced linked mode could be considered to reduce the management effort.

This post is to high light a few points when configuring Cisco HyperFlex with VMware vCenter enhanced linked mode.

HXVCLinked

Continue reading