Month: February 2015

How to customize the vRealize Automation login page

Marco van Baggum Leave a comment

After my twitter feed went berserk after William Lam published his blog post about “How to customize the new vSphere 6.0 Web Client login UI“. I wondered if the same thing could be achieved for the vRealize Automation (vRA) SSO login page and while I was at it add a “disclaimer” to the login page, due to a question from a customer. Here is the result :

Before :

vRA-Branding-before

After :

vRealize Automation login page

So what do you think? My Cloudy Tenant login page looks a little bit different then before right? Who doesn’t want to log in here? 🙂

OK you want to know how I did this? Let me show you. Read More

How to use SNMP with vRealize Operations

Marco van Baggum 15 Comments

This week I got a call from a customer regarding the use of SNMP with vRealize Operations 6.0 (vROps). I’ve done some projects using the SNMP adapter for vCOPs 5.x but not yet for vROps.

Unfortunately, after some time spent on google, I could not find much information on how to install and configure the SNMP adapter for vROps.

After doing some trial and error, I’ve created this “How to use SNMP with vROps” and show you how you can successfully create a SNMP Object in vROps.

vROPS-SNMP-Object

Let the fun begin! Read More

Optimize ESXi for EMC XtremIO

Marco van Baggum 3 Comments

For a project I’m currently working on, I was asked to document the ESXi hosts recommended / optimal settings required to get the best performance from an EMC XtremIO Storage Array. This was a good opportunity for me to dive a little bit deeper in the configuration, do some performance testing and share the results.

ESXi XtremIO

ESXi XtremIO Host Settings

Set the maximum number of consecutive “sequential” I/Os allowed from one VM before switching to another VM: Read More

MSSQL Express Backup Script

Marco van Baggum Leave a comment

There is a saying : “Better safe then sorry” well I’ve learned this the hard way a couple of times ;)…

Nowadays when I’m at a customer’s site and I have to change or do something regarding their MS SQL databases I always ask for a backup first. But sometimes the MS SQL server is a MS SQL Express or the customer doesn’t have the proper backup mechanism in place to backup the databases. Then this script comes in handy!

First you run the following query in the MS SQL Server Management Studio to create a stored procedure in MS SQL . Read More

HP DL580 Gen8 optimized BIOS settings for ESXi

Marco van Baggum Leave a comment

HP DL580 Gen8 optimized BIOS

For a customer we needed to specify the optimized BIOS settings for their new HP DL580 Gen8 servers to run VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5 u2.

These settings are based on the optimized settings and might be needed to change if there are specific configuration or specific needs.

For example we disabled the embedded HP RAID controller because we used a SD card for the ESXi OS.

HP DL580 Gen8 optimized BIOS

  • System Options
    • ProcessorOptions
      • NoExecute Mem Prot > [set] Enabled
    • Intel Virtualization Technology > [set] Enabled
    • Intel Hyperthreading Options > [set] Enabled
    • Processor Core Disable > [set] 0
    • Intel Turbo Boost Technology > [set] Enabled
      • Intel VT-d > [set] Enabled
  • Power Management Options
    • HP Power Profile > [set] Maximum Performance
  • Server Security
    • Intelligent Provisioning (F10 Prompt) > [set] Disabled
    • F11 Boot Menu Prompt>[set] Enable
  • Advanced Options
    • Advanced System Rom Options
      • Power-On Logo > [set] Disabled
      • HP Option Rom Prompting > [set] Enable

Optional settings :

  • System Options
    • Serial Port Options
      • Embedded Serial Port > [set] Disabled
  • Server Availability
    • ASR > [set] Disabled
  • PCI Device Enable/Disable
    • Embedded : Storage Controller > [set] Disabled

Hello world!

Marco van Baggum Leave a comment

Hello world!

Welcome to my new blog vMBaggum.

Hello World

During my daily work as a consultant I come across a lot of issues, fixes, handy blogs and cool scripts that I save for my own reference. So I thought why don’t I share these items with the rest of the community and let everyone benefit of it.

Also I’ll try to create some useful how to’s and write updates about new software releases.

Oh and before I forget it…
My opinions are also those of my employers, but they just don’t know it yet 😉

I hope you enjoy this blog! 🙂