Tech Round Up 31st October 2012

A quick Tech Round Up whilst have the time before a busy schedule kicks in to play. Random interesting tech stuff from: Cisco, Citrix, Drobo, F5, Fusion-IO, HP, Microsoft, NetApp, Veeam and VMware

## Cisco ##

Vladan Seget recommends the TrainSignal courses in Cisco Nexus 1000v!

## Citrix ##

Important security considerations if using the XenClient

## Drobo ##

A nice storage array with Automated Data-Aware Tiering at a fair price!

## F5 ##

Comes recommended if you’re interested in learning about F5 Networks great products!

## Fusion-IO ##

Interesting discussion on Linkedin regards using SSDs to increase SQL performance; recommendations for just using for tempdb; with some recommending the O/S; considerations that the SQL server caches a lot to memory so won’t actually use the SSD; and thoughts on HA and DR.

## HP ##

Interesting PDF which is pretty much a walkthrough install guide for implementing SCVMM 2012 with HP 3PAR and Hyper-V hosts.

If you lose your datastores after upgrading ESXi 5, check out this article which installs the HP Smart Array P220i Controller after upgrade but before post-upgrade reboot.

“HP Insight Control Storage Module Version 7.1 for vCenter is a plug-in for VMware's vCenter management console, enabling VMware administrators to quickly obtain context-aware information about the HP storage in their VMware environment directly from vCenter.” (a free download)

## Microsoft ##

Considering using Deduplication with Server 2012 then check this Technet link out. Interesting table below:

If you get the chance, try them out!

Even if you’re not excited by Windows 8, you’ll want to check out the final chapter:
Ten Things You’ll Hate about Windows 8 (And How to Fix Them)

## NetApp ##

Slightly biased comparison of the dedupe offerings of Dell, EMC, HDS, HP, IBM, NetApp and startups. Of course NetApp leads the way!

Slightly biased 5 differences between NetApp and EMC!

## Veeam ##

The Veeam vs AppAssure debate is still going strong in the Veeam forums. The link above takes you to a very detailed comparison bmcchesney-nv. Interesting to note that AppAssure uses agents and only recently has started supporting flavours of Linux!

## VMware ##

Excellent how to videos covering – Site Recovery Manager, vCenter Operations Manager, vCloud, vFabic/Spring, vSphere, vSphere Storage Appliance

Nice article with table (below) to ensure you patch your vSphere components in the correct order!

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