What infrastructure tools do you use?


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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 :grin: 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 :wink: 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.


52 comments

Userlevel 7
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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

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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

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

 

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

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. 

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

 

Userlevel 7
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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
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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
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I almost forgot!

mRemoteNG  for RDP, VNC, SSH multi connection client (like moba but free)

 

Userlevel 7
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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 5
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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
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For vSphere Upgrade preparation

RVTools and VMware Health Analyzer

 

For vSAN Performance Test

VMware HCI Bench, IOMeter and iPerf

 

VMware Compatibility Guide

https://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php

 

For Dell Storage sizing

Live Optics - https://app.liveoptics.com

 

Userlevel 7
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Of course not, that one needs very special treatment. :wink:

absolutely! 

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

Userlevel 7
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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:

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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.

Userlevel 7
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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:

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!

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  • 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:

:smile: VINDICATION!

Userlevel 7
Badge +13
  • 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
Badge +12
  • 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
Badge +13

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

Userlevel 7
Badge +13
  • 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 7
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This is great list, thank you @marcofabbri:blush:  

Userlevel 7
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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
Badge +20
  • 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:

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