What infrastructure tools do you use?

3 years ago
8 April 2021
52 comments
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+13

vNote42
Veeam Vanguard
1246 comments

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.

Wolfgang | vnote42.net | @vNote42

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Userlevel 7

+17

JMeixner
Veeam Vanguard
2574 comments
2 years ago
11 August 2021

Great addition, have added it to my test list. 😎

Userlevel 7

Scott
Veeam Legend
810 comments
1 year ago
13 February 2023

Pretty much everything listed.

Mputty is very handy if you are using putty often.

RVtools, Brocade San health, Notepad++ are a few others I am often in.

Not free but ADAudit has made my life really easy monitoring fileserver access and audits.

IBM storage insights for monitoring SAN information.

Treesize is a great tool if you deal with large servers and need to find out more information about sizes, file types etc.

Userlevel 7

+20

MicoolPaul
Veeam Legend, Veeam Vanguard
2206 comments
2 years ago
22 November 2021

Draw.io is an essential tool for me now, I use it for all diagrams thanks to the Veeam stencils built in.
ShareX is handy for screen recording & screenshots, has handy tools like defining “regions” and then quickly recapturing these and automatically saving them off into folders. Enables me to work on a particular task, grabbing screenshots quickly, and then annotate them in a batch afterwards.
Notepad++ is an extremely powerful text editor, handy for when I’m trying to amend chunks of text into something usable for automation in particular.

@vNote42 did a good post on this a while back and a lot of the tools should still be valid: What infrastructure tools do you use? | Veeam Community Resource Hub

But those are my top three generic IT tools I use :grinning:

Userlevel 7

+13

marcofabbri
Veeam Legend
990 comments
2 years ago
22 November 2021

I’m just in love about this thread, but first thanks @MicoolPaul and @Kseniya, draw.io is new for me!

For me, top five are:

Advanced IP Scanner: fast and reliable lan scanner;
NMAP: again, network discovery and enumeration;
No-script: on a Firefox browser let me navigate with near to zero worries (the more you use, the better experience you got);
Shodan.io: search engine for internet connected device;
Sysinternal Suite: hey, needs no presentation, right?

Here’s links:

Advanced IP scanner: https://www.advanced-ip-scanner.com/

Nmap: https://nmap.org/

No-Script: https://addons.mozilla.org/it/firefox/addon/noscript/

Shodan: https://www.shodan.io/

Sysinternal: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/sysinternals-suite

Userlevel 7

+13

vNote42
Author
Veeam Vanguard
1246 comments
2 years ago
23 November 2021

Draw.io is an essential tool for me now, I use it for all diagrams thanks to the Veeam stencils built in.
ShareX is handy for screen recording & screenshots, has handy tools like defining “regions” and then quickly recapturing these and automatically saving them off into folders. Enables me to work on a particular task, grabbing screenshots quickly, and then annotate them in a batch afterwards.
Notepad++ is an extremely powerful text editor, handy for when I’m trying to amend chunks of text into something usable for automation in particular.

@vNote42 did a good post on this a while back and a lot of the tools should still be valid: What infrastructure tools do you use? | Veeam Community Resource Hub

But those are my top three generic IT tools I use :grinning:

Michael, I guess Kseniya knows the post already. since we are discussing in it :joy:

Userlevel 5

Franc
Comes here often
32 comments
2 years ago
5 January 2022

Of course not, that one needs very special treatment. :wink:

Userlevel 7

+13

vNote42
Author
Veeam Vanguard
1246 comments
2 years ago
23 November 2021

Draw.io is an essential tool for me now, I use it for all diagrams thanks to the Veeam stencils built in.
ShareX is handy for screen recording & screenshots, has handy tools like defining “regions” and then quickly recapturing these and automatically saving them off into folders. Enables me to work on a particular task, grabbing screenshots quickly, and then annotate them in a batch afterwards.
Notepad++ is an extremely powerful text editor, handy for when I’m trying to amend chunks of text into something usable for automation in particular.

@vNote42 did a good post on this a while back and a lot of the tools should still be valid: What infrastructure tools do you use? | Veeam Community Resource Hub

But those are my top three generic IT tools I use :grinning:

Michael, I guess Kseniya knows the post already. since we are discussing in it :joy:

@vNote42

She has moved the post to this topic after Michael wrote that :)

Sorry, I missed this. Thanks Detective @Mildur ! :grinning:

Userlevel 7

+17

JMeixner
Veeam Vanguard
2574 comments
3 years ago
12 April 2021

Hi,
VS Code is part of Visual Studio?

Userlevel 7

BertrandFR
Influencer
516 comments
3 years ago
12 April 2021

Hello @JMeixner for me VS code = Visual Studio Code

Userlevel 7

+17

JMeixner
Veeam Vanguard
2574 comments
3 years ago
12 April 2021

Thank you @BertrandFR :thumbsup_tone2:

Anonymous
0 comments
2 years ago
20 December 2021

Hi there, one tool that I use a lot is bitvise ssh client

https://www.bitvise.com/ssh-client

it combines ssh client and winscp client,

very easy to use, you can save the sessions, etc.

I use it as an alternative of putty + winscp, also two awesome tools!

Userlevel 7

+20

MicoolPaul
Veeam Legend, Veeam Vanguard
2206 comments
2 years ago
11 August 2021

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.

Userlevel 7

+20

Chris.Childerhose
Veeam Legend, Veeam Vanguard
6161 comments
2 years ago
11 August 2021

Hi,

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. :sunglasses:

Userlevel 7

Inder
Experienced User
577 comments
2 years ago
11 August 2021

@MicoolPaul : I never used WinMTR, will test not sure if it will be approved to be used in my organization !

Userlevel 7

+13

vNote42
Author
Veeam Vanguard
1246 comments
2 years ago
23 December 2021

Hi there, one tool that I use a lot is bitvise ssh client

https://www.bitvise.com/ssh-client

it combines ssh client and winscp client,

very easy to use, you can save the sessions, etc.

I use it as an alternative of putty + winscp, also two awesome tools!

Nice tool! looks very nerd-friendly :joy:

Userlevel 5

EdxH
Comes here often
13 comments
1 year ago
13 February 2023

I’m all about terminals so here is a list of interesting ones.

Tabby terminal is well worth a look:

https://tabby.sh/

There is also:

https://cmder.app/

https://hyper.is/

For Mac users:

https://www.warp.dev/

Userlevel 7

HunterLAFR
Veeam Legend
363 comments
1 year ago
13 February 2023

Hi all!
this lists are always awesome and most of the time I discover new tools to play with!

have you check the free tier of ControlUp?

It gives me a lot of info, from the ESXi, VMs, and many other stuff I need in real time.

ControlUP I used the trial and then becomes free for real time monitoring

and also they have some other cool free apps.

Cheers-

Userlevel 7

+20

Chris.Childerhose
Veeam Legend, Veeam Vanguard
6161 comments
1 year ago
13 February 2023

Hi all!
this lists are always awesome and most of the time I discover new tools to play with!

have you check the free tier of ControlUp?

It gives me a lot of info, from the ESXi, VMs, and many other stuff I need in real time.

ControlUP I used the trial and then becomes free for real time monitoring

and also they have some other cool free apps.

Cheers-

Looked at this before pretty cool app. I use Runecast in my HomeLab as I get a free NFR for being vExpert. 😁

Userlevel 7

+10

Andanet
Veeam Legend
242 comments
1 year ago
14 February 2023

Hi all… no one uses https://app.diagrams.net/?

Yes, Michael mentioned it. But it was named draw.io at this time 😎

ops…. I didn't know that was its name. Thanks Joe

Userlevel 7

This is great list, thank you @marcofabbri! :blush:

Userlevel 7

Scott
Veeam Legend
810 comments
1 year ago
15 February 2023

For the those still requiring or handling Bootable USB media these tools still useful.

VENTOY - Less time spent creating Bootable USB’s. Just drag and drop ISO’s to a folder on USB stick. AIO.

Ventoy is an open source tool to create bootable USB drive for ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI files.
With ventoy, you don't need to format the disk over and over, you just need to copy the ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI files to the USB drive and boot them directly.

RUFUS- Using this less now I have VENTOY

Still use PuTTY but with Putty Session Manager. Not been updated for a while, but lots of powerful stuff for when you got lots of sessions to manage.

I’ll have to check this one out

Userlevel 7

+13

vNote42
Author
Veeam Vanguard
1246 comments
2 years ago
23 November 2021

I also use Snagit and keepass and http://www.freecommander.com/ every day

Userlevel 7

+12

Mildur
Influencer
983 comments
2 years ago
23 November 2021

Draw.io is an essential tool for me now, I use it for all diagrams thanks to the Veeam stencils built in.
ShareX is handy for screen recording & screenshots, has handy tools like defining “regions” and then quickly recapturing these and automatically saving them off into folders. Enables me to work on a particular task, grabbing screenshots quickly, and then annotate them in a batch afterwards.
Notepad++ is an extremely powerful text editor, handy for when I’m trying to amend chunks of text into something usable for automation in particular.

@vNote42 did a good post on this a while back and a lot of the tools should still be valid: What infrastructure tools do you use? | Veeam Community Resource Hub

But those are my top three generic IT tools I use :grinning:

Michael, I guess Kseniya knows the post already. since we are discussing in it :joy:

@vNote42

She has moved the post to this topic after Michael wrote that :)

Userlevel 7

+13

vNote42
Author
Veeam Vanguard
1246 comments
2 years ago
5 January 2022

Remote Desktop Manager from Devolutions. Great tool which has nearly all types of connections (for example HPE iLO, SSH, HTTP, RDP, VNC, and many more) and you can use a MS SQL or MySQL server database as a data source for the connections. This way, the entire team has access to the same connections.

Sounds good! But do not save Hardened Repository Credentials there :joy:

Userlevel 7

+13

vNote42
Author
Veeam Vanguard
1246 comments
2 years ago
5 January 2022

Of course not, that one needs very special treatment. :wink:

absolutely!

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