vSphere 6 Certificate Authority

VMware Certificate Authority (VMCA) is a component in the Platform Services Controller (PSC) of vSphere 6 vCenter Virtual Server Appliance (VCSA).

What does VMCA do?

• issues certificates for
  • VMware solution users
  • machine certificates for machines on which services are running
  • ESXi host certificates when adding the ESXi host to vCenter Server
• you don’t have to use VMCA as the certificate authority and certificate signer

What does VMware Endpoint Certificate Store (VECS) do?

• a local (client-side) repository for certificates, private keys, and other certificate information
• you must use VECS to store all vCenter certificates and keys
• ESXi certificates are stored locally on each host and not in VECS

Certificate Management

• vSphere 6 ships with a new Certificate Manager tool for vCenter for Windows and VCSA

Windows 10 Privacy Tools

There are many concerns about Windows 10 privacy since it is released. Now some tools are developed to block Microsoft from gathering the information. Here are the tools:

• W10Privacy
• Ashampoo AntiSpy for Windows 10

Keep Your Microsoft OneDrive Free Storage Before It Is Gone

Early November 2015, Microsoft announced the OneDrive storage plan change. In addition to removing the unlimited cloud storage for Office 365 consumer subscribers, they will also decrease the 15GB free storage to 5GB for all existing users in early 2016.

My personal OneDrive has 45GB free storage

• 15GB when signing up OneDrive (the current offer is 5GB)
• 15GB when signing up camera roll bonus (this offer is discontinued)
• 10GB as loyalty bonus (this offer is no longer available)

Under the November announcement, my free storage will be reduced to 5GB.

Now (as December 11, 2015) here is the good news - Microsoft changed their plan. It will let us keep the free storage if signing up here before January 31, 2016.

I am glad that Microsoft listen to customer feedback. If you use Microsoft OneDrive, sign up this offer now before it is gone.

Blogger Editor - Open Live Writer

Microsoft Windows Live Writer was my favorite editor for Blogger, as mentioned in Blogger Editor until it stopped working.

Today, Microsoft open-sourced the application as Open Live Writer. However, the version 0.5.0.0 I downloaded on Dec. 10, 2015 still does not work with Blogger authentication - the error message “The user name or password is incorrect. Please try again”. Many people have the same issue. The good news is “some people working on this”.

I am glad that Windows Live Writer is live again (kind of). I am looking forward to using Open Live Writer soon. In the meantime, Classeur or StackEdit is my Blogger editor.

Windows 10 Update KB 3122947 Error 0x80070643 Fix

One of my Windows 10 computers received the 0x80070643 error when installing KB 3122947 update. Here is the fix.

• Open Command Prompt (Admin)
• run dism /online /add-package /packagepath:C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download\b0a5da1b24245bc4237166e09bae92da\windows10.0-kb3122947-x86.cab
  or dism /online /add-package /packagepath:C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download\c4a1b8896ce9fbfea96c1ee6890d52a5\windows10.0-kb3122947-x64.cab
• Reboot

For more info see Mysterious Windows 10 version 1511 patch KB 3122947 fails to install

ESXi Inbox and Async Driver

Definition

• An inbox driver is one that is delivered and installed with ESXi software.
• An async driver is the third-party vendor driver certified by VMware. It does not come bundled with ESXi software and is usually downloaded from VMware.

Why we care

• When inbox and async drivers are present, they are both displayed as installed. However, only one is loaded
• The inbox driver is not removed when an async driver is installed, which results in multiple drivers for the same device being installed
• Multiple drivers can be installed but one is loaded and used.

Determine which drivers are installed

• esxcli software vib list | less
• esxcli software vib list | egrep <driver_string>
  • If the system has an inbox and async driver installed, the above egrep command displays more than one output

Determine which driver is actively being used

• esxcfg-info | less
  • Look at the Version under the module
• The name and the version of the storage driver corresponds with the second drive in the output of the esxupdate query command
• For network drivers
  • ethtool -i vmnicX
• Identify the vmnic # of the associated NIC
  • esxcfg-nics -l
  • esxcli network nic get -n vmnicX

Windows Server 2016 Licensing Change

Here are the short summary of the changes in Windows Server 2016 licensing comparing with Windows Server 2012.

• Windows Server 2016 licensing is based on CPU core, not CPU socket. One license pack covers 2 CPU cores.
• Windows Server 2016 licensing has a minimum of 8 cores (4 packs) per processor, and a minimum of 16 cores (8 packs) per system. If a server has a single CPU with 4 cores, it still requires buying 16 cores (8 packs) license to run Windows Server 2016.
• Windows Server 2016 Standard and Datacenter edition are functional differences. For example, the following are only available in the Datacenter edition
  • Storage Space Direct (S2D)
  • Storage Replica
  • Shielded Virtual Machines / Host Guardian Service
  • Network Controller
• Windows Server 2016 Software Assurance licensing allows portable to Azure