I had a question the other day asking whether the encrypted password which can be specified within an ESXi Kickstart file (denoted by the –isencrypted flag) can use a different hashing algorithm other than MD5? The answer is absolutely yes. In fact, MD5 as a default hashing algorithm has NOT been used for a number […]
Automating Intel Sighting remediation using PowerCLI (SSH not required)
In case you may not be aware, Intel recently notified VMware that certain Intel Broadwell and Haswell CPUs are affected by Intel Sighting after applying the latest microcode update to remediate against the Spectre vulnerability. VMware has published the following KB 52345 which provides more details on the affected Intel CPUs along with the recommended workaround in case you […]
Verify Hypervisor-Assisted Guest Mitigation (Spectre) patches using PowerCLI
VMware recently published a new knowledge base (KB) article 52085 that outlines instructions for enabling the Hypervisor-Assisted Guest Mitigation (CVE-2017-5715), also known as the Spectre vulnerability. This KB also provides steps to verify the updated microcode (included in the ESXi patch) has been applied along with Virtual Machine verification (those applicable) to ensure that they are seeing […]
Tip from Engineering - Use UEFI firmware for Windows 10 & Server 2016
Several weeks back I was chatting with a few of our Engineers from the Core Platform Team (vSphere) and they had shared an interesting tidbit which I thought I was worth mentioning to my readers. When creating a Virtual Machine in either vSphere or Fusion/Workstation, customers have the option to override the default and specify […]
Auditing/Logging vCenter Server authentication & authorization activities
Recently, I have seen an increase in the number of requests from our field and customers inquiring about logging various vCenter Server authentication and authorization activities. The topics vary from identifying which log files contain which activities to to why some of this information is not available in the vCenter Server Events UI or why they are […]