Tag: links

Bypass HSTS

On By sam.aaronIn Daily, HowTo, TipsLeave a comment

While I am an avid supporter of encryption and security, I do have to admit… getting the dreaded HSTS error within the Chrome browser sucks. When this happens, one of the quickest easiest “hacks” (tips!) to bypass it is to just type “badidea” on your keyboard. And voila! HSTS is bypassed.

I learned of this trick from the following blog post by Scott Helme. He details how to do this, but more importantly why it’s not really a good idea. If you are getting an HSTS error, then there is obviously something wrong with your SSL Certificates and you should investigate.

Bypass HSTS
Bypass HSTS

VMware Hands On Labs

On By sam.aaronIn Daily, VMware, VMWorldLeave a comment

Pablo Roesch welcomes CEO Pat Gelsinger to HOL 2017
For the last three years, I have had the honor of being a VMware Lab Captain. What does this mean? Well, it means that I volunteer about 300-400 hours of my time to help write, develop, support, encourage, and assist event goers with taking a product focused lab at our VMworld, vFocus, and VMUG events.

For the last two years, I have been a co-captain creating the vRealize Automation (vRA) Challenge Lab (HOL-1890). It has been such a fun way to introduce common vRA problems that Cloud Administrators will come across and not only show them how to troubleshoot and identify them, but to show those same administrators how to resolve them. In my day job within Professional Services (PSO), I use this lab to supplement my vRA Knowledge Transfer.

Now that VMWorld 2017 has completed, our hardwork on those labs are now being released to the public. Over the next short minute, all 81 labs will be released for you to take on your own time (and at home!). For now, here’s Round 1.

https://blogs.vmware.com/hol/2017/09/vmworld-2017-hands-on-labs-released.html

ESXi BIOS Power Settings Best Practice

On By sam.aaronIn Daily, ESX, ESXi, VMware1 Comment

Dell Poweredge R720 Server BIOS Power Settings
Dell Poweredge R720 Server BIOS Power Settings

There is a movement to change the best practice regarding the bios power settings on an ESXi host. In the past, you would set the power settings in the BIOS to max and be done with it. You did this because previous versions of vSphere did not work well with the various C-States of the processor (ie., When the workload on the host would drop, the CPU would drop to a lower power setting. When it would go to wake and draw the CPU back to full power, the host would crap all over itself.).

vSphere 5.5 introduced a new feature that allows VMware to better utilize the C-States of some of the newer processors. Thus allowing the CPUs to change power and speed states without affecting the performance or behavior of the Host. (YEAH!!)

I know we are happy about this, but not so fast…

This link describes the behavior and a couple of performance benefits from the change — however, it should also be noted, that this change is dependent on the type of workloads in your environment. If you have a heavy IO Intense workload or a time sensitive workload, you may still want to have that host on max power, high performance, etc.

http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2014/01/bios-power-policies-affect-performance.html

vCat 3.0 Documentation Website

On By sam.aaronIn Daily, vCloud, VMwareLeave a comment

I’ve been working on spinning up a new vCloud 5.1 environment in my lab. During this install, I’ve had to reference a number of various websites for various differing issues. One document that was referenced a bunch was the vCat. While looking for it, I came across this website which lays out the document in a very easy to understand and searchable format.

If you do vCloud implementations, I would recommend bookmarking this site as a good reference tool.

vCat 3.0 Documentation Website