Yes, seven parts into this series we can finally mount our handy dandy vCenter 5.5 ISO and start installing software. Hopefully I haven't lost anyone along the way with all of the background and SSL information. But with the complexities in vCenter 5.5 and all the moving parts, I think it's important...
Now that you understand what type of SSL certificates you need and how many vCenter 5.5 requires, we need to create a Certificate Authority template that will mint proper certificates. You may very well be able to get away with the Microsoft "Web server" template, but it is missing a few...
Now that you've read up on upgrade best practices and SSO enhancements in the first four installments, we can get to the fun stuff! Understanding vCenter 5.5 SSL certificates. Ok maybe not fun for all, but fun to me. Last year in my 5.1 install series I just plowed right into...
In this installment of the vSphere 5.5 installation how-to series we cover upgrading ESXi hosts, VMs, and VMFS. As stated in my vCenter 5.5 upgrade post, I'm not going to do a step-by-step screenshot filled posts for upgrades. Why? Too many different deployment types for that to be widely useful. But you do need...
Upgrades can be scary times with any enterprise product. The more your critical infrastructure relies on a particular solution, or set of solutions, the more imperative it is you fully understand and test the new product. vSphere 5.1 taught us that thorough testing cannot be skipped and you should not rush a new product...
Imagine having this dream: You are in the VMware company grocery store where each isle displays a VMware product, shelves fully and neatly stocked with product. You wonder over to the isle labeled 'SSO 5.1'. To your horror you see a huge mess: SSL certs lying all over the floor, incorrectly configured...
At VMworld 2013 in San Francisco VMware unveiled vSphere 5.5, the successor to vSphere 5.1. Customers are now chomping at the bit for vSphere 5.5 upgrade information. Of great anticipation was what VMware did to the vSphere 5.1 SSO service to address common complaints. If you've been living under a rock,...
After teasing us last week with a vSphere 5.5 pull-down under My VMware Downloads, but no content, today we have content! You can now download the GA bits for vSphere 5.5. Seems a little odd to go GA on a Sunday, but hey, I'm not one to complain! My 20Mbps...
This series of posts will show you how to configure SQL 2012 on VMware using a Microsoft failover cluster. Now that VMware vSphere 5.5 is out, I'm excited that VMware finally got on board with officially supporting clustering the vCenter database. However, their only official clustering option they support is what...
So it seems to be fashionable to blog about one's VCAP exam experiences, so I'll jump on that bandwagon too. If you follow me on twitter, you might know I took the VCAP5-DCA exam today. While it's still fresh in my mind (no, not disclosing any NDA information), I wanted...