vCSA 6.0 tricks: shell access, password expiration and certificate warnings

It is no secret anymore that VMware is putting more and more energy in getting rid of the Windows based vCenter product and pushes us towards the Linux based vCenter Server Appliance (vCSA). Up to now the appliance was already a good choice for labs and other small deployments, but it lacked the scalability of the Windows version, and was not a good fit for large production deployments.

With the release of vSphere 6 this has changed due to the evolvements of the vCenter architecture and significant updates that were made to vCSA. The biggest remaining caveat now is that you still need a Windows machine for VMware Update Manager (VUM). I do not really use VUM in my lab, so I will definitely switch to the vCSA - whenever the time will come for me to do the 6.0 upgrade.

So I took a closer look at vCSA 6.0 ... and stumbled over some issues that are definitely worth sharing.

vSphere 6 is GA: The ultimate guide to upgrade your white box to ESXi 6.0

So finally VMware made vSphere 6 generally available (GA)! I already wrote about what we can expect from ESXi 6.0 in terms of white box support and using the free license, and I bet that a lot of people cannot wait to have their boxes upgraded ...

In this post I will explain how you can download ESXi 6.0, what you need to take care of with regards to unsupported hardware and software, how you actually do the upgrade, and how you can build your own customized ESXi 6.0 installation ISO for new installs.

Top vBlog 2015 voting is open now!

Finally ... Eric Siebert over at vSphere-Land.com has kicked off this year's Top vBlog voting - this time sponsored by Infinio!

The yearly vBlog voting is a great opportunity to show your support for your favorite virtualization blogs. Keep in mind that this is not a popularity contest - do not just vote for the blogs that everyone votes for every year, but pick those that had the best value for yourself!

You will find this blog in the overall favorites list and in the category "Best Independent Blogger".

Head over to the Top vBlog 2015 site to cast your vote - Thanks!!