Change default VMware Remote Console Application
Have you ever tried to open the VMware Remote Console and have it launch VMware Workstation and NOT the VMware Remote Console application? This is set via two keys in the Windows Registry. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\CLASSES\VMRC\DEFAULTICON and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\CLASSES\VMRC\SHELL\OPEN\COMMAND. You can get these values via POWERSHELL. As you can see, my Remote Console is currently set to VMware Workstation. I prefer to use…
New Vembu BDR Suite v5.3
Just over a week ago, Vembu released version 5.3 of their BDR Suite. Check out some of the new features below. Can you guess which one I’m most excited about? 😀 File Server Backup from BDRSuite Backup Server UI You can now add Windows and Linux file servers to the Data Source and configure file & folder level backup from…
Burn an ISO to disc via Command Prompt
Did you know that you don’t need to use a third party program to burn your ISO files to CD/DVD? All you need to do is open a Command Prompt or PowerShell window (whichever you feel more comfortable opening). It’s the same command for both, so it doesn’t matter which one you open. The command is called: isoburn.exe. If you…
Deploying Vembu BDR Suite (Part 4 – Replication)
Now that I have Vembu setup and backing up to my local NAS, I thought I should try and replicate some of the data off-site. Where should I replicate to? Lets go with Amazon, as I already have an account established there. First, I created a new S3 bucket to replicate the backup data to. I decided to name it…
Deploying Vembu BDR Suite (Part 3 – Configuration)
After you install Vembu, the first thing you you need to do is LOGIN! Once you double click and launch Vembu BDR, you’re prompted to sign-in. Now that we’re signed in, you can see the first step is adding a backup target. Lets click CREATE NEW BLOCK STORAGE REPOSITORY and get started! First, we need to give it a name.…
New Vembu BDR Suite Release (version 5.2.0)
Earlier this month, April 2022, Vembu released version 5.2.0. This version has some great new features I thought I’d feature here. Restore to Microsoft Azure BDRSuite now allows restoring the VMware VMs, Hyper-V VMs, Windows Server & Workstation backups to Microsoft Azure. You can initiate the restore directly from your BDRSuite Backup server or Offsite DR Server. BDRSuite 360 Server…
Deploying Vembu BDR Suite (Part 2 – Installation)
Next in my Vembu series, we’ll take on the task of Installing Vembu BDR Suite. To do this, I followed the installation guide found here. The first step is to make sure you’re downloading the most recent version. Visit the link here to download the latest version. In this post, I’ll be installing Vembu BDR Suite version 5.1.0. After launching…
Running VMFS Unmap via PowerCLI
Starting in vSphere 5.5, VMware introduced a new command in the esxcli namespace that allows deleted blocks to be reclaimed on thin provisioned LUNs that support the VAAI UNMAP primitive. You can run the command without any maintenance window, and the reclaim mechanism has been enhanced: Reclaim disk space size can be specified in blocks instead of a percentage value…
Using PowerCLI to set the Global System Log Location
Are you seeing an error stating that the System Logs on your host(s) are stored on non-persistent storage. Following THIS VMware KB article, I knew I had to change the Global Logdir. What we did was create a shared datastore called ESXiScratch. On this datastore, we created folders for each host. .locker-lab01.locker-lab02etc. Next, I ran the following PowerCLI command to…
Deploying Vembu BDR Suite (Part 1 – System Requirements)
To go along with my Partnership with Vembu, I’ve decided to install the Vembu BDR Suite in my home lab. Since this involves deploying a new VM for the BDR Backup Server, I thought I’d start with going over the Vembu BDR Suite System Requirements. You can see below, the Vembu BDR Backup Server supports multiple versions of Windows and…