It’s that time of the month again with the update flings from VMware labs. In January seven flings received an updated while no new flings have been released, it can’t have a launch party every month can we? Six familiar names with the vSphere HTML5 Web Client, Desktop Watermark, Horizon Toolbox, HCIBench, Blockchain on vSphere and the OS Optimization tool plus the lesser updated (last update august 2016) DoD Security Technical Implementation Guide(STIG) ESXi VIB.

DoD Security Technical Implementation Guide(STIG) ESXi VIB

This one is for the people who have to implement a very high security on their vSphere environment. Please read the changelog, no STIG has been released yet for vSphere 6.5! Since it’s a lesser updated one I will give you the complete description from the fling site:

The DoD Security Technical Implementation Guide (‘STIG’) ESXi VIB is a Fling that provides a custom VMware-signed ESXi vSphere Installation Bundle (‘VIB’) to assist in remediating Defense Information Systems Agency STIG controls for ESXi. This VIB has been developed to help customers rapidly implement the more challenging aspects of the vSphere STIG. These include the fact that installation is time consuming and must be done manually on the ESXi hosts. In certain cases, it may require complex scripting, or even development of an in-house VIB that would not be officially digitally signed by VMware (and therefore would not be deployed as a normal patch would). The need for a VMware-signed VIB is due to the system level files that are to be replaced. These files cannot be modified at a community supported acceptance level. The use of the VMware-signed STIG VIB provides customers the following benefits:

The ability to use vSphere Update Manager (‘VUM’) to quickly deploy the VIB to ESXi hosts (you cannot do this with a customer created VIB)

The ability to use VUM to quickly check if all ESXi hosts have the STIG VIB installed and therefore are also in compliance

No need to manually replace and copy files directly on each ESXi host in your environment

No need to create complex shell scripts that run each time ESXi boots to re-apply settings

Changelog

Update January 2018

Added 6.5 STIG VIB to the downloads section. **Please note this is not based on a DISA STIG as a 6.5 STIG has not been released**

VMware OS Optimization Tool

No need to say a lot about this fling. If you need to optimize a windows system this has been the goto tool for years.

Changelog

January 4, 2018

Issue fix: Can not access public templates

Blockchain on vSphere

Want to build & test blockchain applications? This might be a handy tool in your toolbox for that.

Changelog

Jan 15 2018, BoV 1.1

Designed to run on PKS(Pivotal Container Services), and validated in PKS Beta

Integrate Blockchain Explorer into BoV which makes it easier to view/monitor peers, transactions, etc

Enhance BoV to support saving blocks and channel data to persistent volume

Optimize the installation process

Provide a default channel for blockchain applications

Update Fabric to 1.0.5

HCIBench

Specially build to benchmark VSAN clusters but can be used to test any HCI.

Changelog

Version 1.6.5.2

Added case comparisons by generating an XLS file for each test folder

Fixed bug when there’s white space in datastore name or test name

Horizon Toolbox

Missing anything in the (crappy) Horizon? There is a chance that it might be in this tool!

Changelog

2018 Jan 18

Horizon 7.4 support

Some bug fixes

Desktop Watermark

Do you want to be sure one of your desktops is used for auditing. With this tool you can set an (in)visible watermark.

Changelog

Build 1127

This build is signed now.

Addition

Password protection for the configuration & uninstallation was supposed to be added in the previous release as well so might be a copy/paste error



vSphere HTML5 Web Client

Do I really need to add a description to this one? There is a html5 client build into vSphere these days but this version is updated very often and is becoming more and more on par with the (yuck) flash client.

Changelog

Fling 3.33 – Build 7616394

New Features

Support for PCI and Shared PCI devices for a VM

Create vApp wizard

Clone vApp wizard

vApp move to Host & Cluster

Duplicate a VM customization specification to another VC and with custom name/description

Synchronize Licenses action (former Import License Keys Data)

Assets’ details

Ability to edit VM Advanced configurations in Edit Settings of the VM

Change the shortcuts for Power Operations in VMware tools section in the Edit Settings of the VM

Change the maximum concurrent VMRC sessions for a VM in the Edit Settings

Bug Fixes

Can add an existing hard disk in Edit Settings for VM residing on datastore cluster

Known Issues

Creation of child vApp wizard is not working – the workaround is to create a child vApp as separate vApp and use move to operation to move it under the parent one.

Fling 3.32 – Build 7496117

New Features

vApp power operations

vApp move to operation to folder operation

vApp rename operation

vApp delete operation

vApp export to OVF template

Improvements

vApp related VMs tab, datastore tab and networking

Add Permission action on VM templates