I would be interested to know which tool for IT infrastructure you use for your or your customers environment. Here is a completely unsorted list of tools I use frequently in various environments:
PowerShell with various modules like VMware PowerCLI (by the way, version 12.3 was released today) and Veeam VBR.
RVtools. I think this is a widely known and used tool. Get a very detailed inventory of your vSphere environment within a few mouse-clicks. New version 4.1.2 was released yesterday.
Brocade SANHealth. I think, this tool is not that well known. For me, it is THE tool for Fibre Channel fabric documentation. Just install the tool, put in data of FC switches, capture date. Then upload to brocade (respectively Broadcom). After a few hours you get a link to a extremely detailed, fully automatically generated documentation (Excel und Visio).
As an alternative to putty, I prefer MobaXterm. There is a free and a paid version. It offers features like sending commands to multiple sessions simultaneously. Free edition is limited to saved connections.
HPE Library and Tape Tools. Tool for (not only) HPE Tape drives, autoloader and libraries. Can be used for driver and firmware updates, testing and troubleshooting.
My own script Get-VMFSPathCount to show the number of paths from hosts to VMFS volumes. PSP Policy is also displayed.
FileZilla Client and Server for FTP Client and Server. FTP Server is useful for example for FC Switch firmware updates and configuration backups. As well for VMware vCenter VCSA backups.
WinSCP. I don't think I need to say anything more.
IOMeter for disk performance testing. I use it to check environments IO performance. But do not take outcomes to serious. Must be interpreted right For testing HCI performance, I prefer VMware HCI Bench. BTW IOMeter can also be used to test network performance.
vCenter Code Capture. Started as a Fling, it is finally part of vCenter. You start the Capture, do your task in vCenter and find used PowerCLI commands afterwards.
All these tools do not cause extra costs.
Let me know tools of your choice.
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Well, i use quite the same tools of you @vNote42 .
I will add automation and configuration management tools.
Ansible or/and terraform with vagrant
I use many of the tools already listed.
What I additionally use is:
Dell OpenManage to keep the firmwares/microcodes of our Dell servers up to date.
Not a free tool, but very handy. Brocade Network Advisor to manage a big SAN landscape with 30+ SAN Directors and dozends of switches.
I will have a look at @vNote42 ‘s script and ar the Brocade SANHealth. Thanks for some new tools
I still need a replacement for Remote Desktop Connection Manager! I didn’t realize it was discontinued until I went to go add it to this list.
I still need a replacement for Remote Desktop Connection Manager! I didn’t realize it was discontinued until I went to go add it to this list.
The Remote Desktop Connection Manager is now part of the sysinternals suite…
Keepass - password manager and has link to Devolutions RDM
Devolutions Remote Desktop Manager - used for all RDP sessions
Passbolt - work password tool for all
Confluence - IT Wiki at work
Todoist - Premium subscription - used for all tasks Work/Personal and sync across devices
NotePad++ - log analysis especially with Veeam as Searching is easy
Twilio Authy - 2FA client and syncs on all devices
Terminal Preview - Windows 10 app with multiple tabs for different sessions of CMD, PS, Linux, etc.
Definitely going to check out MobaXterm as well.
Great list, thanks Chris! Especially Twilio sounds good, was looking for such stuff.
You guys have already said so many of my tool kit so I’ll just add:
Dell Live optics - Useful for gathering performance requirements (and it supports Veeam repository sizing now too!)
ShareX - This tool is fantastic for documentation/blogging. It’s snipping tool cranked up to 11 (because 10 is so last year!)! Can record videos, make GIFs etc. My favourite use case is that you can auto detect regions of one or more screens based on app windows/boundaries OR you can define your own region, then you have an option to reuse last region. If you’re doing step by steps you can frame it once to your application window then keep reusing last region as you step through with no cropping! Even has useful print screen related key bindings to do on the fly...
A few years ago I used it to see at glance who was watching HD movies at work as you can see the big huge connections light up, something similar to the image from their website below:
A few years ago I used it to see at glance who was watching HD movies at work as you can see the big huge connections light up, something similar to the image from their website below:
I prefer MobaXTERM for multi tabbed tty or rdp, you can save some macros etc… Thanks for the discover for etherape! I do the same for our datacenters with netflow and elastic :D
I was a big fan of Notepad++ like @Chris.Childerhose but i put my eyes on VS code and all plugins
A few years ago I used it to see at glance who was watching HD movies at work as you can see the big huge connections light up, something similar to the image from their website below:
I prefer MobaXTERM for multi tabbed tty or rdp, you can save some macros etc… Thanks for the discover for etherape! I do the same for our datacenters with netflow and elastic :D
I was a big fan of Notepad++ like @Chris.Childerhose but i put my eyes on VS code and all plugins
@BertrandFR you really replaced Notepad++ by MS code? Interesting! I have to admit I still use MS ISE for small PowerShell scripts. I prefer doing debug in ISE than in code.
@BertrandFR you really replaced Notepad++ by MS code? Interesting! I have to admit I still use MS ISE for small PowerShell scripts. I prefer doing debug in ISE than in code.
Yes Vs code with extensions is code editor on steroids. I feel like a cheater sometimes :)
Hi, VS Code is part of Visual Studio?
Hello @JMeixner for me VS code = Visual Studio Code
Thank you @BertrandFR
Yes Vs code with extensions is code editor on steroids. I feel like a cheater sometimes :)
would you share a list of your extensions?
Just had a peek at ShareX. Yup, this one’s a keeper!
One of my favorite tools is mRemoteNG since we have a fairly decent sized team that all use RDP, SSH, etc, you can load the list of servers up in MSSQL and everyone can share the same list of servers. Personal client settings are saved locally.
Just had a peek at ShareX. Yup, this one’s a keeper!
One of my favorite tools is mRemoteNG since we have a fairly decent sized team that all use RDP, SSH, etc, you can load the list of servers up in MSSQL and everyone can share the same list of servers. Personal client settings are saved locally.
That’s pretty cool about the MSSQL server list!
vSpeaking Podcast is talking again about Top 10 VMware Admin Tools:
I missed this post months ago. Awesome @vNote42 , thx for sharing this. Almost all the tools I often use, are already mentioned by you or someone else. I agree with @Chris.Childerhose , I use often Devolutions Remote Desktop Manager (nice tool). A small tool I also use, is Treesize Free to quickly have an overview of the used storage of a file-server or so. Some others : CrystalDiskInfo and Multiping
I missed this post months ago. Awesome @vNote42 , thx for sharing this. Almost all the tools I often use, are already mentioned by you or someone else. I agree with @Chris.Childerhose , I use often Devolutions Remote Desktop Manager (nice tool). A small tool I also use, is Treesize Free to quickly have an overview of the used storage of a file-server or so. Some others : CrystalDiskInfo and Multiping
Thanks for your tools! Right, Treesize is also on my list. Thanks for Multiping, looks good!
Hi,
Just wanted to add another tool to this list, found out about WinMTR today. It combines ping and traceroute, so if you’ve got a high-latency/low-throughput network or if you’re delivering Veeam Cloud Connect services and you’ve got a customer with issues backing up successfully, this tool can highlight any congested links along the way in the form of packet loss measurements.
It’s not perfect as you’ve got to expect some form of packet loss with ICMP, but if you see a high level of packet loss, you’ve got something that can’t just be dismissed away.
To use you just type in your target destination IP and it’ll traceroute against it and perform ping tests automatically for each hop.
Hi,
Just wanted to add another tool to this list, found out about WinMTR today. It combines ping and traceroute, so if you’ve got a high-latency/low-throughput network or if you’re delivering Veeam Cloud Connect services and you’ve got a customer with issues backing up successfully, this tool can highlight any congested links along the way in the form of packet loss measurements.
It’s not perfect as you’ve got to expect some form of packet loss with ICMP, but if you see a high level of packet loss, you’ve got something that can’t just be dismissed away.
To use you just type in your target destination IP and it’ll traceroute against it and perform ping tests automatically for each hop.
Another great addition. Adding it to my list of tools.
to show the number of paths from hosts to VMFS volumes. PSP Policy is also displayed.
For testing HCI performance, I prefer VMware HCI Bench. BTW IOMeter can also be used to test network performance.
as you can see the big huge connections light up, something similar to the image from their website below:
