News
PowerCLI: New cmdlets for Update Manager
Mar 3rd
VMware have this morning / last night released some PowerCLI cmdlets for VMware Update Manager (VUM). A short description can be found of them below:
| Cmdlet Name | Cmdlet Description |
| Attach-Baseline | Attaches baselines to the specified Template, VirtualMachine, VMHost, Cluster, Datacenter, Folder, and VApp objects.
Attaching a baseline to a container object such as a folder or datacenter transitively attaches the baseline to all objects in the container. |
| Detach-Baseline | Detaches baselines from the specified inventory objects. |
| Download-Patch | Downloads new patches into the Update Manager patch repository from the enabled patch download sources. |
| Get-Baseline | Retrieves the baselines specified by the provided cmdlet
parameters. |
| Get-Compliance | Retrieve baseline compliance data for the specified object of type Template, VirtualMachine, VMHost, Cluster, Datacenter, Folder, and VApp. |
| Get-Patch | Retrieves all available patches or those specified by the provided cmdlet parameters. |
| Get-PatchBaseline | Retrieves all patch baselines or those specified by the provided cmdlet parameters. |
| New-PatchBaseline | Creates a new patch baseline. Patch baselines can be applied to either hosts or virtual machines. Depending on the patch criteria you select, patch baselines can be either dynamic or static (fixed). |
| Remediate-Inventory | Remediates an inventory object against the specified baselines. |
| Remove-Baseline | Deletes the specified baselines from their servers. Before the
removal, the baselines are detached from all entities they have been attached to. |
| Scan-Inventory | Scans inventory objects for baselines attached to them. |
| Set-PatchBaseline | Modifies the properties of a patch baseline. You can specify explicitly the patches you want to include in the baseline through the IncludePatch parameter. |
| Stage-Patch | Initializes staging of patches. Staging allows you to download
patches from the Update Manager server to the ESX/ESXi hosts, without applying the patches immediately. |
The cmdlets can be downloaded from VMware’s website as a PowerShell Snapin and require PowerCLI 4.0 U1.
I look forward to seeing a few scripts pop out in the next few days that make use of these.
CloudCamp March 2010
Feb 22nd
CloudCamp London is back again. It seems like only last week when I went to the last one. Now although this is only going to be my second attendance at CloudCamp, it promises to be a little different from the norm. Since there will only be one room available there won’t be any breakout sessions but instead a presidential style debate about cloud computing featuring:
- Matt Deacon – Microsoft
- Simon Wardley – Canonical
- Rod Johnston – VMware
- Chris Richardson – Thoughtworks
I’m not particularly familiar with any of them but it could be interesting having VMware and Microsoft squaring up against each other to talk about Clouds.
As an added bonus it’s just round the corner from where I’m working. I think I’ll go and register now. For more details (including the registration process) see CloudCamp’s site.
Date:
Thursday, March 11, 2010 from 6:30 PM – 11:00 PM (GMT)
Location:
Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre
Broad Sanctuary
Westminster
SW1P 3EE London
United Kingdom
Veeam Surebackup
Feb 19th
Everybody is talking about it. If I asked my brother-in-law (an advertising creative) he’d probably say that this is a good marketing strategy. It certainly works on me anyway – I’m as curious a hell! Like everyone else who’s been talking about it, I registered to find out more. Some have specualted about features or approaches (VirtualisedReality) and some (the SLOG), better connected than me, may find out more.
Actually I registered a few hours ago now but something has been bugging me. The big reveal is due on March 22nd. There are still 9 days of February to go. Doing the maths, 22 + 9 does not equal 23 (see the image below). It’s a lot closer to 32. Perhaps Veeam have a small code problem? I’d hope not and I think not.
Having had a look at the page source,
it looks like the countdown is configured to run until March 15th. I’m guessing that there will be more revealed or some change to their site around that time. I wait in eager anticipation.
Update (20/02/2010): Found a tweet from @veeam this morning:
RT: @veeam: RT @mpoore: New Post: Veeam Surebackup http://bit.ly/bAVtum <- Good detective work…the countdown will be changed for March 22 (OOPS) 
Released: VMware View 4.0.1
Feb 19th
VMware View 4.0.1 is a maintenance release that adds a small number of features / enhancements:
- Localisation of the View client in a number of languages including French and German.
- Support for vCenter 2.5 Update 6 and ESX 3.5 Update 5
- PCoIP now supports Virtual Printing, a couple of Single Sign-On Providers and International keyboards.
There are a few bug fixes included also. The best thing to do is to head over to the release notes and check them out. Then it’s time to download and update 
.
VI3 Extended Support
Feb 1st
Sorry to keep going on about VI3 but I alluded to the end of General Support in a previous post and thought it might be nice just to expand on it a bit.
VMware explain their support lifecycle policies here and basically the clock started ticking for VI3 support the day that vSphere went GA. VI3 moves into extended support on 21st May 2010. That’s only 4 months away.
So what does Extended Support mean? This is VMware’s definition:
New hardware platforms are no longer supported, new guest OS updates may or may not be applied, and bug fixes are limited to critical issues. Critical bugs are deviations from specified product functionality that cause data corruption, data loss, system crash, or significant customer application down time and there is no work-around that can be implemented.
