Last week I had the pleasure of attending the VMware Partner Exchange conference, now renamed Empower. It was my first VMware conference outside of VMworld, and it was a MUCH different experience. There are certainly pros and cons to a conference the size and scale of VMworld. Empower was on the opposite end of the … Continue reading VMware Empower Recap
Building AWS CloudFormation templates using CloudFormer
I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm somewhat of a newbie when it comes build AWS CloudFormation templates, but that hasn't stopped me from trying to learn how to harness the power they provide. Thus, last week I spent some time trying to build a CloudFormation template to deploy a Cisco ASAv. At this point, … Continue reading Building AWS CloudFormation templates using CloudFormer
Recovering from a failed AWS Tape Gateway
If you deploy an AWS tape gateway that encounters an unrecoverable failure, you can "potentially" recover any virtual tape data that has already been uploaded to AWS to another tape gateway. I say "potentially" because I have experienced the corruption of (1) virtual tape; this could happen if your tape gateway experiences its fatal failure … Continue reading Recovering from a failed AWS Tape Gateway
Configure Backup and DR of CPMData
Hello all, it's been a while.....personally I've been enjoying some time off so my blogging has suffered. I was pretty excited to see that Adam was selected as a VMware vExpert for 2018 and I believe his selection is well deserved. To get back into things, we'll continue looking at N2WS Cloud Protection Manager, more … Continue reading Configure Backup and DR of CPMData
vExpert 2018
I was very surprised to receive some amazing news last weekend...my application for vExpert 2018 was accepted! I started this blog last year a little bit before VMworld. I had consumed a ton of material from other vExperts to that point, mainly from researching errors I had run into in the field or best practices … Continue reading vExpert 2018
DR with Cloud Protection Manager
CPM provides a DR option that can be used to easily send backup data from one region to another should you need to restore your EC2 instances in another AWS region. This post details the process of sending US-East (N. Virginia) backup data to US-West (Oregon). Configure CPM Disaster Recovery Options Within CPM, click Policies. … Continue reading DR with Cloud Protection Manager
Improving AWS / Cisco ASA VPN Instability
If you are experiencing any instability in regards to a VPN connection between your corporate datacenter and AWS, consider the following (received from AWS Support) if you are using Cisco ASAs to establish the VPN connection to AWS. -> From looking at the logs, following are the suggested changes - 1. I am seeing Phase … Continue reading Improving AWS / Cisco ASA VPN Instability
Part 4 – AWS Backup with CPM – Restoring Files
At a high-level, posts 1-3 covered the process to deploy, initialize, and configure CPM to backup EC2 instances. To close out the series, I'll cover the process to restore files using CPM's backup monitor. Though I'll close the basic backup/restore series out with this post, there is still much more than can and will be … Continue reading Part 4 – AWS Backup with CPM – Restoring Files
Veeam Restore Windows Agent to VM
I recently had a deployment that required testing of a physical server running the Veeam Windows Agent to be restored as a virtual machine. The customer was using VMware, which presented a little bit of a challenge as Veeam does not currently have an "Instant Restore to VMware" option like is available for Hyper-V. While … Continue reading Veeam Restore Windows Agent to VM
Part 3 – AWS Backup with CPM – Creating a Backup Schedule and Policy
In this post, we're still looking at backing up AWS EC2 instances using N2WS Cloud Protection Manager (CPM). Posts #1 and 2 covered deploying and initializing the appliance. Here we dig into the CPM interface to configure backups for EC2 instances. Creating a Backup Schedule and Policy A backup schedule sets the start time and … Continue reading Part 3 – AWS Backup with CPM – Creating a Backup Schedule and Policy