Men&Mice Suite Version 7.3 – Plugging into VMware while having a REST

Men&Mice Suite Version 7.3 has arrived - and not a minute too soon! Yet considering that it’s jam-packed with goodies such as a brand-new REST API, VMware vRealize Orchestrator plug-in and further support for Windows Server 2016, it was definitely worth the wait.

Let’s take a quick peek at what Version 7.3 has in store for our customers.

Taking a break with the REST API

API. In the world of the Internet, it means Application Programming Interface. In the world of the Icelandic language (where Men&Mice has its roots) it means … monkey. Literally. And maybe just as well – a good API, with or without hair, really does seem to make life so much better.

Monkey business or no monkey business, the Men&Mice REST API is sure to offer customers a very welcome extra set of hands - and feet, so to speak – with which to create workflows and write handy scripts for the import and export of data, amongst other things.

Used by browsers, REST (Representational State Transfer) is often considered to be the language of the internet. By using HTTP requests to GET, POST, PUT and DELETE data, REST paves the way for two computers to communicate over the internet by one acting as a web server and the other as a web browser. Making use of a stateless protocol, RESTful services exhibit particularly fast performance, reliability and scalability.

The Men&Mice REST API includes all the functionality of the existing Men&Mice SOAP API and JSON-RPC, but delivers the added advantages of ease of use, combined with a rich set of tools and support libraries. Additionally REST, as a resource-based instead of a standards-based API, means users gain considerably greater operational flexibility.

More information on how to get the most out of REST can be found in the Men&Mice REST API article.

Plugging in where it matters – VMware vRealize Orchestrator Plug-In

Men&Mice takes a further step towards simplifying virtualization by introducing the VMware vRealize Orchestrator plug-in. Designed to integrate seamlessly within the VMware Orchestrator framework, the Men&Mice Suite VMware plug-in allows for fast and efficient provisioning of virtual machines.

When a Men&Mice Suite user puts in a request for a new virtual machine (VM), the vRealize Orchestrator receives the next available IP address from the requested subnet, together with other essential configuration information. vCenter creates the VM and communicates the changes back to the Men&Mice Suite, which then updates DNS infrastructure accordingly. Additionally:

• the Men&Mice Suite’s custom properties allow further customization of the VM’s visibility and status.
• VM information retained in the Men&Mice Suite enables VM tracking, synchronization and updates, including the release of IP addresses after a virtual server is taken down.
• the Men&Mice Suite talks to DNS servers and registers DNS entries and other changes, such as updates to DNS policies, thereby consolidating DNS data required by the vRealize Orchestrator.

By plugging into the vRealize Orchestrator, the Men&Mice Suite enables integrated functionality that not only saves time, but also strengthens security, eliminates errors of configuration and ensures improved and continuously synchronized network manageability.

Windows Server 2016 Support Released in Tandem with General Availability

Men&Mice Suite support for primary Windows Server 2016 DNS and DHCP features was already included in Version 7.2, released in May 2016. A stand-out feature was support for Response Rate Limiting, which significantly reduces the impact of a Denial of Service (DoS) attack on servers.

With Windows Server 2016 achieving General Availability in September 2016, Men&Mice expands its support for the following additional Windows Server 2016 features:

DNS policies

DNS policies grant a user control over how queries are handled based on specific criteria. These criteria can, for example, be used in the following scenarios:

• High availability of DNS services
• Traffic management
• Split brain DNS
• Filtering
• Forensics
• Redirection based on date/time

Specific types of policies are:

• Zone transfer policies
  Essentially used to define how zone transfers take place, zone transfer policies control zone transfer permission on the server level or the zone level.
• Recursion policies
  Control how the DNS server performs recursion for a query.
• DNS query resolution policies
  Used to specify how incoming DNS queries are handled by the DNS server.

IPv6 root hints

The IPv6 root servers can now be used for performing name resolution.

DANE TLSA records

DANE, or DNS-based Authentication of Named Entities, allows a domain owner to specify in a particular DNS record which certificates authorities are allowed to issue for the domain.

The Men&Mice Suite Release Notes provide more detail on other minor improvements and fixes that form part of the Version 7.3 Release.

That wraps it up for a quick round-up of all things new and shiny that the Men&Mice Suite Version 7.3 has to offer. If you’d like to jump right in and try out these new features, treat yourself to a Version 7.3 free trial.

Coming up in December is the last in our 2016 series of webinars, this time focusing on DNS high availability tools. Don’t forget to sign up!