Problem solve

Building a private cloud infrastructure

• Network consolidation and virtualization solve management issues

  Consolidating networks can help organizations reduce costs and improve data center efficiency -- as long as they focus on security. Continue Reading

• 2 ways to craft a server consolidation project plan

  Server consolidation enables admins to boost server utilization and decrease power consumption, which can also reduce costs and improve performance. Continue Reading

• Use virtual clusters to avoid container sprawl

  Virtual clusters enable admins to deploy, track and manage containers across various systems to ensure performance, security and governance, and low costs. Continue Reading

• Mini PCs for business offer improved performance, reduced costs

  Mini PCs are a low-cost hardware alternative to servers that enable organizations to maintain maximum data center features and capabilities in remote office locations. Continue Reading

• Enable AMD-V in BIOS to remediate error codes

  If admins are experiencing error codes due to AMD-V being disabled, they can easily remediate this issue by entering BIOS and reenabling the virtualization extension. Continue Reading

• Employ log management best practices to better analyze, protect data

  Log files generate vast amounts of data, which negatively affects performance. As a result, admins should build logging strategies to prioritize and protect data.Continue Reading

• Virtualization challenges that negatively affect your systems

  Virtualization provides lower costs and improved productivity, but these benefits can be offset by certain challenges, such as unresponsive VMs and VM network latency.Continue Reading

• Optimize Docker images on Windows for better system performance

  Multiple layers in a Windows Docker image can cause resource contention. Optimization requires you to limit the number of layers that you use and minimize each layer's size.Continue Reading

• Prepare for Windows Server 2008 end of life

  Admins must prepare their workloads for the Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2 end of support. Otherwise, they risk the possibility of significant security breaches.Continue Reading

• 5 common virtualization problems and how to solve them

  Organizations can correct common problems with virtualization, such as VM sprawl and network congestion, through business policies rather than purchasing additional technology.Continue Reading

• Hyper-V vs. VMware comparison: What are the differences?

  Hyper-V and VMware are in a perpetual battle for supremacy in the virtualization market. Although the two hypervisors have similar features, capabilities are somewhat different.Continue Reading

• Defeat app killers and monster VM performance issues with ease

  VM troubles got you down? Never fear: Some solutions to VM performance problems are as easy as looking in the right places and asking the right questionsContinue Reading

• Top 25 VMware ESXi commands

  This VMware ESXi command line cheat sheet is a must-have resource for IT professionals who maintain and troubleshoot ESXi.Continue Reading

• Support Hyper-V security with these important protocols

  A virtual environment's security can make the difference when it comes to malicious attacks, preventing unauthorized OS or firmware codes from running at boot time.Continue Reading

• Micro VMs can present unique management challenges

  The haphazard deployment of micro VMs can eventually lead to issues ranging from IP address depletion to serious performance problems resulting from extreme resource contention.Continue Reading

• How resource contention affects VM storage performance

  VM performance issues often occur when resource contention is present. Admins can check the number of IOPS requests and storage array connections to address any bottlenecks.Continue Reading

• The virtualization and container skills gap widens

  Businesses face organizational and management challenges as their support staff transitions from virtualization to a new development and management environment.Continue Reading

• Compare the top 5 bare-metal hypervisors

  Hypervisors such as VMware vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V, Citrix Hypervisor, RHV and Oracle VM Server for x86 provide value to enterprise-level data centers in different ways.Continue Reading

• Virtualization cost-savings methods for IT administrators

  The biggest costs in any virtualization environment tend to be licenses, hardware acquisition, support and maintenance, so that's where you should look for ways to reduce expenses.Continue Reading

• Market evolves to address container security issues

  Container use is gaining traction in virtual environments, but containers present unique security challenges that vendors and organizations must overcome.Continue Reading

• Manage large volumes of VM data with these storage tactics

  Admins can effectively virtualize large servers with storage tiering and disk allocation, but they must be wary of potential IOPS and redundancy issues.Continue Reading

• Manage host, VM access with a Hyper-V administrators security group

  Use Hyper-V roles to limit users to predefined levels of access. By creating security groups and managing them with PowerShell, you can implement role-based security at scale.Continue Reading

• Generate a Hyper-V report to track clusters, nodes with PowerShell

  It's difficult to navigate all the information related to Hyper-V nodes and clusters, so use PowerShell commands and scripts to generate reports and automate information retrieval.Continue Reading

• Disaster recovery vs. backup: Plan for and prioritize VM workloads

  Before admins design a recovery plan, they must plan out which VM workloads need a disaster recovery environment and which need backups. Weigh these factors before making the call.Continue Reading

• Enable and disable Hyper-V secure boot with PowerShell

  The manual process of enabling secure boot is time-consuming, so use PowerShell cmdlets and scripts to make it efficient to use secure boot in Hyper-V.Continue Reading

• Top server sizing strategies for VMs

  How many VMs can you put on a server? That depends on whether your hardware and virtual environment are well-matched. This tip offers four criteria to select the right servers.Continue Reading

• Docker for Windows shows permission errors on shared volumes

  Understand and work around one of the more common Docker for Windows errors -- permissions for shared volumes -- to read, write and execute to the shared volume.Continue Reading

• Is your VM frozen? Isolate the cause and problem solve

  Many issues cause VMs to become unresponsive, including invoking particular tasks, such as snapshots or migrations, resource configuration and infrastructure unavailability.Continue Reading

• Common VM network latency causes explained

  There are many potential causes of network performance problems when it comes to VMs. Familiarize yourself with the most common causes to aid in troubleshooting.Continue Reading

• Mix test and production environments with hyper-convergence

  Despite the enhanced separation that hyper-converged infrastructure can offer, it's better to mix environments and use rules to create a hardware-independent workload balance.Continue Reading

• Troubleshoot common VM live migration errors

  VM live migration errors in Hyper-V include connection issues, virtual switch mismatches and incompatible hardware. Learn more about these common errors and how to resolve them.Continue Reading

• Use an IT outage communication plan to recover from a host crash

  Efficiently recover from a host crash by maintaining transparency for your stakeholders and evaluating the resources available for a full root cause analysis.Continue Reading

• Can virtual SAN performance create VM performance issues?

  Monitor the performance of your VSAN and VMs to ensure one isn't affecting the other. Performance metrics and alerts can make it easy to spot VSAN issues before they affect VMs.Continue Reading

• How can VSAN network requirements affect performance?

  Virtual SAN network configuration problems can detract from performance and availability. Update your drivers and check that no security products are blocking connections.Continue Reading

• How do VSAN compatibility issues affect performance?

  Effective VSAN performance requires compatible hardware and software. Review compatibility guides and use diagnostic tools to keep your system updated.Continue Reading

• KVM troubleshooting in six simple steps

  To troubleshoot common KVM issues, start by checking the logs. Then, isolate the issue and check the VM status using virsh commands. Finally, check the disk space, memory and networking.Continue Reading

• How do you reconnect a Hyper-V virtual switch to your VMs?

  Save time by using PowerShell commands to reconnect your VMs to a new Hyper-V virtual switch. Different commands can access single VMs or many VMs whether they are local or remote.Continue Reading

• How do you extract an ISO file before booting a VM?

  Take advantage of PowerShell commands to clear ISO files from your VMs before booting and ensure their configuration is set to boot from the virtual hard drive, not the ISO.Continue Reading

• Overcome hybrid cloud deployment challenges

  Before adopting a hybrid cloud, think about how it will benefit the business and the ultimate goal. Also, hire IT staff with the appropriate level of expertise and start small.Continue Reading

• Manage private cloud performance and troubleshoot issues

  Management tools intended for private clouds are key to troubleshooting performance issues because they provide insight that traditional virtualization management tools might not.Continue Reading

• 512e disks attempt to bridge the gap between 512n and 4Kn

  It's important to ensure that your OS and hypervisor support 512e and 4Kn disks, but there are always alternatives to work around any incompatibilities.Continue Reading

• Retrieve a Hyper-V event log with the Get-EventLog cmdlet

  Use the Get-EventLog PowerShell cmdlet with the desired parameters to retrieve a Hyper-V event log. This command gets errors and warnings and exports them as a CSV file.Continue Reading

• Taking charge of VM allocation, troubleshooting methods

  Long-term virtual infrastructure health leads to business growth. To achieve this, you must master virtual machine capacity planning and troubleshooting techniques.Continue Reading

• Preserve Hyper-V security from Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities

  Protect Hyper-V VMs from Meltdown and Spectre security vulnerabilities, and install patches from Microsoft. Watch out for future revisions, performance impacts and recalls.Continue Reading

• Expand KVM storage with virsh commands

  With a few steps -- the creation of files, the addition of XML code and the execution of commands -- you can use the virsh command-line interface to add storage to existing VMs.Continue Reading

• Migrate cloud applications back to on-premises applications

  In the cloud frenzy, it's easy to lose sight of what to do if the cloud doesn't work. With time, patience and cost planning, administrators can migrate applications back on premises.Continue Reading

• Address bulk VMM agent updates with PowerShell automation

  The SCVMM agent upgrade process is a regular, but sometimes laborious, part of VM management. Use PowerShell to make light work of bulk updates through commands and loops.Continue Reading

• Creating a private cloud with minimal issues

  If you consider security, performance, scalability, expertise, network visibility and service management when creating a private cloud, you avoid problems down the road.Continue Reading

• Troubleshoot System Center Orchestrator RunBook issues

  By referencing various log files, like the Real-Time Log and the Historic Log, and checking the Orchestrator Runbook Audit History page, you can more easily locate the point of failure.Continue Reading

• When backing up VMs, overcome any issues you encounter

  Common problems with VM backups include low disk space, low memory, interdependencies and so on. Learn how to overcome these issues and more with this expert advice.Continue Reading

• Understand Azure VM boot diagnostics

  Enable Azure VM boot diagnostics with Azure Portal or PowerShell to capture logs that can help you troubleshoot boot failures and obtain screenshots to see the VM's current state.Continue Reading

• Solve common vCPU troubleshooting issues

  Performance problems can be caused by a number of things, including overprovisioning and poor vCPU selection and assignment to VMs. Use these strategies to correct mistakes.Continue Reading

• Force a full or delta Azure AD synchronization with these methods

  PowerShell is just one way to trigger AD synchronization when troubleshooting, making configuration changes or ensuring a consistent copy of on-premises AD.Continue Reading

• Troubleshoot Azure AD synchronization issues with these strategies

  Identifying AD synchronization issues is easy, but fixing them can be tricky. Resolve synchronization errors and ensure user accounts are operational with these best practices.Continue Reading

• Solve these common NIC team problems in Hyper-V

  Before you encounter noncompliant hardware, integrated security errors and configuration issues, read this expert advice so you know what to do when the time comes.Continue Reading

• Container performance troubleshooting challenges and tips

  Assessing the impact of containers on application workloads can be extremely challenging, partially because of how quickly containers are spun up and down compared to VMs.Continue Reading

• Simplify the VM troubleshooting process with these basic tips

  Tools like Windows Performance Monitor and adjustments to memory, CPU and disk usage metrics can reduce the stress of the VM troubleshooting process.Continue Reading

• Check configuration settings for SCVMM service templates

  A misconfigured SCVMM service template can cause serious headaches. Before deploying service templates in production, validate them with SCVMM Manager or PowerShell.Continue Reading

• What are the most common mistakes made when creating a VMware DR plan?

  DR planning mistakes are easy to make. Avoid selecting a tool that doesn't meet your needs or that's overly complex, carefully consider the replication site and test frequently.Continue Reading

• What to do with used server equipment after virtualization

  If virtual consolidation has left you with extra server hardware, put those boxes to good use and give old servers new life.Continue Reading

• Address these storage issues to help find bottlenecks

  Drive configuration, server connection and storage backplanes are all things that can affect application latency. Start with these items when looking for storage bottlenecks.Continue Reading

• Identify bottlenecks and resolve VM performance problems

  Some of the infrastructure components behind slow performance include CPU, memory and networking. These tips will help you find and eliminate those bottlenecks.Continue Reading

• Recognize and address application performance issues

  When monitoring your environment, you need to know the difference between bottlenecks and faults and understand performance data and application limits.Continue Reading

• How to defend your VMs and virtualization hosts against cyberattacks

  In an increasingly virtualized world, there's always the risk of falling prey to a cyberattack. The best way to prevent an attack is to have a solid security plan in place.Continue Reading

• Use log analysis tools to help you find problems in your data center

  Log analysis tools do the heavy lifting when it comes to identifying the root cause of issues occurring in your data center, but they come with their own challenges.Continue Reading

• End the battle between the system admin and the security team

  System administrators and security personnel need to set aside their differences in order to maintain security and performance levels and to protect their bottom line.Continue Reading

• Prevent a rogue server from bringing down your data center

  Don't let unplanned changes take a toll on your virtualized environment. Stop rogue servers in their tracks by identifying them and then deciding whether to keep or remove them.Continue Reading

• Eliminate Hyper-V slow network performance with these tools and tips

  Network performance can make or break your virtual environment. With Hyper-V networking tools, you can maintain fast network performance and ensure your resources are distributed evenly.Continue Reading

• IT cost reduction strategies for your virtual environment

  When developing IT cost reduction strategies, you need to figure out how you can take full advantage of your virtual environment, while still minimizing potential risks.Continue Reading

• Use resource control to address costly storage issues

  With resource control, you'll not only be able to overcome storage resource challenges, but you'll be able to effectively support an expanding infrastructure.Continue Reading

• Solve extreme storage and configuration problems within a storage infrastructure

  Configuration problems and extreme storage demands can take a serious toll on your storage infrastructure. Fortunately, with the right tools, these issues are easy to remedy.Continue Reading

• Identify and overcome issues in your storage subsystem

  Issues in your storage subsystem can create bottlenecks that drastically effect storage performance. Identify these issues early on by running benchmarks and analyzing your results.Continue Reading

• Respond to your first hypervisor host crash

  Though the benefits of virtualization outweigh the risks, a host server crash is extremely visible and causes concern with management. Be prepared to respond with efficiency.Continue Reading

• Tracking down storage latency in VMs

  Where can storage performance or latency problems occur in virtualized systems?Continue Reading

• Storage may be to blame for that I/O bottleneck

  A disk I/O bottleneck, resource contention, misconfigurations and other problems will degrade the performance of virtual machines. When too many VMs are competing for limited resources, results will inevitably suffer. This chapter looks at tactics ...Continue Reading

• Don't waste valuable data center resources on overprovisioning

  From monitoring CPU usage to right-sizing VM allocation, there are a number of precautions administrators can take to prevent overprovisioning.Continue Reading

• How can testing improve nested hypervisor performance?

  Not all hypervisors and OSes can play nice with others. The best method for avoiding complications down the road is to thoroughly test your nested virtualization deployment.Continue Reading

• Adding an additional virtual bridge to a KVM environment

  Virtualization expert Sander Van Vugt offers tips to simplify the process of adding a second software bridge to your KVM environment to run VMs in an isolated SDN.Continue Reading

• How should I address memory errors in a virtualized system?

  Many hypervisors have features that can prevent memory-related problems from escalating into devastating server crashes.Continue Reading

• IT resource management and virtual server housekeeping tips

  Without regular monitoring, sprawl and overallocation can waste expensive compute and storage resourcesContinue Reading

• To prevent VM sprawl, put data first and tools second

  The creation of too many VMs and the continued existence of unused VMs plague modern IT infrastructure. This three-part guide looks at the ongoing battle against virtual machine sprawl, with a focus on strategies and tools for tracking VM lifecycles...Continue Reading

• Fixing virtualization performance issues

  It can be difficult to run an effective virtualized environment. Keeping it optimized and making good use of performance data are ongoing concerns for busy virtualization admins. This e-book series looks at best practices for getting the most out of...Continue Reading

• Is storage causing ESXi network performance problems?

  How do you determine whether storage is causing network performance issues on an ESXi server?Continue Reading

• How do I measure network latency in VMware ESXi?

  Network latency can kill application performance. Learn how to test for and identify bottlenecks in your VMware environment.Continue Reading

• Essential policies for configuring VMs in a lab environment

  Lab VMs can be an effective tool for testing out software in a safe environment. However, if configured incorrectly, lab VMs can pose serious risks to production environments.Continue Reading

• How to find problem VMs and solve virtualization sprawl

  With the advent of virtual infrastructure and "free" VMs, administrators are seeing a rise in VM sprawl, making environments difficult to manage. In order to combat this issue, you must first locate any and all problem VMs.Continue Reading

• Virtualization can ease Windows Server upgrade challenges

  Upgrading an OS or application can be a complex and time-consuming process, but cloning and snapshots can make the process easier.Continue Reading

• Can you improve the performance of VM management tools?

  What factors influence the performance of VM management tools, and how can I identify bottlenecks in management-level performance?Continue Reading

• Will server performance testing and diagnostics slow down my VMs?

  Will diagnostics slow down my server's performance, and should I turn off performance data collection in production machines?Continue Reading

• How CPU and memory affect application performance

  Application performance will change depending on if you want more cores, better clock speed or what you choose for memory.Continue Reading

• How can I prevent sprawl and VM lifecycle problems?

  Discovering which VMs are necessary and which are just taking up space can be difficult if you don't have a strategy in place.Continue Reading

• When legacy Windows OS won't play nice with your hypervisor

  Try these troubleshooting options if you need to run an unsupported version of Windows as a guest OS on your VM.Continue Reading

• Are data center outages an unavoidable reality?

  Virtualization and automation software has enabled faster response to outages, but high-profile companies are still plagued by downtime.Continue Reading

• Reduce costs with a hybrid cloud approach

  Cloud service providers and in-house options both have pros and cons, so a hybrid cloud approach could be the right fit.Continue Reading

• Benefits of flash storage: More VMs per host

  Flash storage represents a significant investment, but it can increase performance and may help save money in other areas.Continue Reading

• Answers to your burning DRS load-balancing questions

  VMware's DRS is able to move virtual machines from an overloaded host to one with more space -- as long as there are no hiccups. Administrators can prevent any miscues by being prepared.Continue Reading

• The ongoing battle between hyper-converged vendors

  Businesses used to rely on partnerships between companies to get the different top products but now hyper-converged vendors have expanded to offer more products of their own.Continue Reading

• Protect your virtual infrastructure from a single point of failure

  Removing every potential failure point is usually prohibitively expensive. Instead, start by mapping potential failures and assessing business needs.Continue Reading

• Don't forget to configure these SCVMM 2012 R2 settings

  SCVMM offers a wide variety of configuration options but some settings can be overlooked or are unknown because they don't appear directly in the management console.Continue Reading

• Reducing energy costs with virtualization and automation

  Virtualization allows administrators to cut down on the number of servers needed, which helps reduce energy consumption and save money.Continue Reading