Today marks 107 days in the Warzone.  Okay, it’s not a sexy number like 100, or a gross number like 144… But it is the number of today where I’m writing this!     So, some of you might be asking, “What’s it like living out there in the Warzone?!”   I’ll tell you, and I’ll be as frank and honest as I can (or shirley?!)

I bet some of you went to college before, so you know what Dorm living is like, right?   Living in rooms where you may share walls or more with others.  It’s very much sort of like that… Well, Kind of. Sort of kind of I guess, I mean, a picture says a thousand words right?

So as you can see from these beautiful photos, from the outside you can see the beautiful looks of a plywood box which I live in with 7 other people.  Awesome, right?!   And here’s a little glimpse of the ‘inside’ of the B-Hut, all 96 Square feet of space to stretch out and spend my days! (Nights!)

Clearly you’re thinking, “Damn, Ikea can make a KILLING there in Afghanistan with such lavish accommodations!”  Don’t you know it baby!

But when I’m not in my room sleeping, FaceTiming with the family, or at work, I walk down awesome pathways like this, or hide in bunkers like this!

And now I’ll hit some of the Q/A which I regularly get asked to the best of my ability!

1. Wow, as a vegan it must be really hard to eat out there. Do you find it difficult?
1. I believe the technical answer is, HELLS YEA BITCHES.   I look forward to breakfast as it tends to be the most consistent meal of the day, and even that can be spotty often times.   I intentionally carb-load and over-eat while I’m here as “Winter is coming” or so my body needs to predict… as I don’t know when a vegan famine may be upon me, and it’s up to me to protect my well being!   There tends to be on average 2-3 items to eat per meal for a vegan, out of >50 items, those metrics aren’t something you can set a clock to…
2. I see you tweet at times about rockets and mortars, SRSLY? IS THAT HAPPENING?
1. Yes. Yes it does happen. I’ve been fortunate that the closet ROCKET to me has been a little over a mile away, which is fortunate considering the small rockets have a blast radius of 50 yards, I’d ideally like to stay as far the hell away as possible.    I’ve become a little jaded at Television special effects since being out here as I watch an explosion of say, an oil tanker 50 feet away have no impact on TV/Movies, yet a TINY IED goes off 3 miles away and it shakes the building I’m in? Yea, movies are totally ruined for me!
3. Hey, Seriously WTF, why the hell are you in Afghanistan?!?!
1. So, I covered a bit of that in this blog post here but on an added note.  I’m no warrior, I’m not strong, I cannot carry a weapon, nor perform physically bearing activities.  But I had the opportunity to do my part to serve our country, and serve our troops and do what I do best.   Help bring them home and make the technical environment which runs a warzone theater as Afghanistan as stable and solid as possible.  It just so happens I also carry with that a pretty hefty load of responsibility, but I’m no stranger to responsibility and leading.  So it suits me. :)
4. Do you have any crutch music/movies to help get you through the days?
1. Why yes I do.   I will often find myself watching Portlandia and Flight of the Conchords, and just trying to stay current on my regular Television as it airs.   I did watch Scott Pilgrim vs the World the other day, and I could watch that again and again.
2. Musically, I will often be listening to Taylor Swift, Erasure and at this very moment as I type this, I’m listening to The Birthday Massacre.  My musical library obviously extends far beyond that; such that depending upon the analytical research I may be doing that is a perfect opportunity to blast The Ataris, Taking Back Sunday or Greenday in my ear holes!
5. Asked by @nekosensei : What do you do while you’re on base to keep yourself entertained?
1. This one may come as a surprise to a lot of you, but I *love* working. I always have, and being that I work 12 hours a day, I’m no stranger to the opportunity to work!   But when I’m not working and I’m not talking with my family on FaceTime (Skype sucks out here) I am watching shows, listening to music, or reading (or writing respectively).   It may not sound too glamorous, but it’s a good way to center yourself…
6. Asked by @nekosensei : What locations have you been able to visit in the region when you were given the chance to get off the base?
1. Honestly. I avoid leaving the base if I can help it (Exception while going on leave)   But as far as the places I’ve visited here in Afghanistan and in the region, here’s a breakdown…
1. Kuwait – I visited Kuwait when I first got here, it’s where we flew in to.   I didn’t mind it too bad, dust storms and the weather wasn’t too bad but it was ‘winter’, apparently, it’s hot as all hell now, so not being there is ideal I figure.   The accommodations were a ‘nice’ transient tent with mice and food options which left much to be desired.  But it wasn’t too bad.  My time spent there was relatively pleasant.
2. Kandahar – Wow. What can I say. I HATE Kandahar!   A lot of people may be surprised by that, but I was in a constant ‘transient’ state waiting to fly out of there and being promised a flight only to be disappointed constantly.  My time spent there, over 3 days was spent in a constant state of conscious/unconscious, but no sleeping.. I was never really ‘asleep’ as that might infer I was resting.   I slept on benches which hobos would laugh at in a PAX Terminal which a week prior had been hit directly with a mortar.   Let’s just say, I escaped from that without any scratches and I’m glad.
3. Camp Bastion / Camp Leatherneck – This Marine base was a resort compared to where I’m at now!    The streets were laid out, well.. like streets. It’s as though they planned what they were doing (They did to some extent) it was well coordinated, and organized.  Albeit, they hadn’t had a rocket attack for ~18 months prior to my arrival, and on the day I arrived, there were like 6 rockets fired on us.  No one was hurt, so win!
4. Dubai, UAE – The United Arab Emirates can be an interesting and cool place.   It is a Muslim country with a very strict and odd set of laws, but you must respect the laws of the nation you’re in, and I respectively did that.   I shared a lot of the photos, of both the Futuristic and advanced side of Dubai while at the same time I got a glance at the ancient ways things have been done for hundreds or thousands of years, poverty and royalty living side by side.   Whenever I leave or enter Afghanistan, it is always through Dubai so I’ll be no stranger to that place.
5. Bagram – My ‘home’ away from home, where I live now and for the unforeseen future.    This is an old soviet base which they abandoned during the Soviet-Afghanistan war in the 70s or something? I can see why they abandoned it though.   To give you a sense of how it is here… The sun rises around 4am, it’s SUNNY and HOT by the morning, and it only gets hotter by the evening. We’re ~5000 feet above sea level, so we’re pretty close to the sun!   By around 7PM it gets dark and when it gets dark it gets COLD and WINDY.  It’s crazy, and the sand, dust and flour-like substance of dust/sand gets in everything.  If it’s raining a little bit, your hair will be plastered like cement.    So there ya have it!

Hopefully this gives you a little insight into life in Afghanistan,  and a brief idea of how things are for me.  Stay tuned to my Instagram, Twitter and Facebook for regular updates on activities, photos and you name it!

Don’t be a stranger! I’ll be home eventually! :)

So if you’ve read this KB Article, you’ll see that it states VCOPS IS NOT ACTUALY SUPPORTED WITH SRM. vCenter Operations Manager 5.0.x: Using Site Recovery Manager to Protect a vApp Deployment (2031891) – But hey, who are we to listen to things like KB Articles!

Alright, the truth of the matter is.. Yes, for multiple reasons (IP Pools, the way VMware released the vApp, etc) that technically vCOPS is not supported with SRM.   So now that you know what isn’t possible, let’s focus on fixing the challenge with not having to constantly “detach” your CD drive since you’re clearly ignoring this and continuing to SRM Protect your vCOPS environment :)

You’ll notice if you view the settings of the VMs in the vApp that the CD drive is shown as connecting to datastore ISO file “[]”.

I know what you’re thinking, “Well, I’ll just click Remove and be done with it!” A few things about that! If you choose to ‘”Remove” it, you’ll get this error, which is annoying at best!

So, the way you get around this, is in the following steps…

Power down your vApp Virtual Machine – I tend to use “Shutdown guest operating system” to let the system halt gracefully.   Then change the CD drive to “Client Device” click “Ok” and let it save those settings, and then return into it, and then select “Remove” following these steps, the CD drive will no longer exist in the Virtual Machine, you can power it back up and let it be protected by SRM without ever getting errors about the CD drive being connected to []

Now, sometimes… a risk of shutting down your vCOPS environment is that you’ll get some whacked out error of some kind.  I’ve been there, I’ve done that, and this tends to resolve it every time.

• Log in to the UI VM Console
• su admin
• vcops-admin repair –- ipaddress 192.168.0.x (IP address of the Analytics VM)
• It’ll run for a while and you’ll see a screen like this – And then you’re set!

At times you may need to perform this activity, or even go so far as to repair in the event of an SRM failover.  

Hopefully this helps you out, as it has helped me out in managing my vCOPS environment(s) :)

Well, here we are… vExpert nominations have been submitted, the data reviewed and the decisions unveiled as to whom represents the 2013 year of #vExperts and I am humbled and honored to be allowed to continue as a part of this absolutely awesome club.

To get a good feel for who are some of the members of this crazy and wild community that we’re a part of you can see the official list here;
vExpert 2013 Awardees announced

Oh and my fellow #vExperts be sure to take advantage of these folks who support our ability to continue to support the community!
Tintri free polo shirts for #vExperts with your Twitter handle on them!

2013 vExperts, come get a free one-year subscription to TrainSignal!

But enough with the lovefest for us, right?! Albeit… if you’re a new vExpert this year be sure you come say hi, introduce yourself within the community and amongst ourselves!

Some of you may ask the question, “With all this talk about vExperts, how do I become one too?!?!”
The Non-definitive guide to the VMware vExpert Program, Tips, Tricks, How to become a vExpert!

Last year I published this accord to give you a glimpse into the vExpert life, and even some tips on how to make this a reality. Well, with nominations over, and those aligned to 2013 chosen there’s no better time than the present to start fulfilling your destiny to ensure that when this time comes around again in 2014 you too will be on that list. The thing is, being a vExpert isn’t something arbitrary and it doesn’t come lightly. A lot of us eat, sleep and breathe Virtualization. Not because we’re paid to, but because it is a PART of us. It’s important to know that if you should so choose a future like this for yourself… there may be some responsibility resting upon your shoulders… That’s all I’m saying. :)

I congratulate my fellow vExperts and yes for those of you who have been asking, I WILL be attending VMworld 2013 in San Francisco this year, all of my flights have been booked to take me away from this beautiful desert warzone I’ve been spending my time in so I can enjoy my time with all of you and my family for a few weeks! And yes, this does mean there will be #CXIDinners as well! More details on that to come!

Congratulations all of you, this year just got even more interesting!

CAT OUT!

/@cxi

Cannot import patch definitions and patches from an incompatible source

Incompatible Repository. Provide a repository from VMware vSphere Update Manager Download Service 5.0.0 to 5.0.0 Update 1
Incompatible Repository. Provide a repository from VMware vSphere Update Manager Download Service 5.0.0 to 5.0.0 Update 2

I know what you might be saying, WTF?! "I’ve gotten that error before, yet there’s no solution documented anywhere!" Damn straight! And it’s documented here, now!

STOP IT DAMNIT, GET TO THE POINT, WHAT IS THE SOLUTION?!?!?

The simple answer is, you’ll get this error (and various iterations of it) when you have a firewall blocking you from connecting the vCenter server to the destination VUM Server. So clear those firewall rules, get those ports opened up, and BAM! YOU BE GOOD!

Also, there are some other scenarios whereby this will happen and it’ll be due to the URL you’re entering incorrectly, like ending it wrong, appending a “/” or various other iterations, if that’s the challenge you’re facing the solutions for that are well documented, unfortunately the “Firewall blocking” option is NOT documented. :)

If you find this helps you, let me know!

Here are some of the top questions I’ve been getting lately since I’ve been here in Afghanistan.

Why the hell are you in Afghanistan?!   What are you DOING there?!

I mean, sure I was a little… obtuse about details, for safety and security reasons when I shared things initially in my post Taking a stand and serving my country; or WTF is @CXI doing in Afghanistan?!? but I think I’m comfortable answering a few of these questions for you :)

So on the initial question, WHY am I here – refer to my blog post above and I think you’ll get that answered pretty easily! But more importantly…

What am I actually doing here!

So, I eluded to doing things with Storage… Virtualization… Cloud… etc.   Well, here is a little low-down at the best I can possibly offer you. :)

In 2011 Afghanistan NATO and International forces had ~800 bases or so, and then started closing down or transferring bases, take the 202 bases closed in 2012 alone and as we are here in 2013, more and more bases are being closed as we ready for the complete draw-down slated to finish Dec 31 2014.   So, you’re asking WTF ARE YOU DOING, STOP STALLING!  :)  

Where I come in, is as these bases start to close up, there’s infrastructure which gets decommissioned, data-centers closed, services shut down or consolidated.   And as the Afghanistan theatre and country lead for Virtualization and all the fun that falls underneath that… Well, let’s just say… There’s a whole lot of fun that falls underneath that! Between the sites which are shutting down and the ones which will continue running for a long time to come. :)  

Hopefully this gives you a little bit of an idea of what I’m doing, how I’m doing it, and all of the evolution and change which goes with that!   I’ll provide more details, stories and so much more as time goes on, you can’t even begin to imagine the challenges and woes of high tech infrastructure in a warzone and as applicable I’ll share those stories here, at conference and beyond when I come home!    Also, I’m planning to do some ‘virtual’ VMUGs here for the guys on the ground who haven’t had that experience and if you’re a speaker/presenter who would like to try to remotely present let me know!

Some of you ask about sending me letters, care packages and what-not, feel free to send whatever you’d like to me at the address below!

Christopher Kusek
JNCC-A Task Force Signal
APO, AE 09354

I wish you all the best and don’t hesitate to reach out to me in the short and the long-term!   Eventually I’ll be coming home and the eventual adventures I’ll pursue when I come home, Safely.  :)