vExpert Creating a Packer Container for an Image Factory How to create a simple Docker container for executing HashiCorp Packer builds
vExpert Creating a simple Docker host using Photon OS and VMware Aria Automation This post goes through the creation of a standalone Docker host based on Photon OS. Then it gets turned in to a catalog item for Aria Automation.
vExpert Monitoring Chrony with Grafana and Telegraf How to setup Telegraf, InfluxDB and Grafana to provide remote Chrony time server monitoring
vExpert Replacing CentOS NTP servers with Photon and Chrony One of the CentOS 8 time servers in the homelab let me down recently, so I decided to replace it with Photon OS and Chrony
vExpert Fixing VMware Identity Manager Network Properties Precheck Error If you're trying to upgrade VMware Identity Manager and are warned that network properties are missing then this article may help you.
vExpert Creating HTML email templates for vRealize Automation Code Stream How to create an HTML formatted email template for use in a vRealize Automation Code Stream pipeline
HomeLab How to get BGP working on a UniFi Dream Machine Pro BGP isn't available natively on the UniFi Dream Machine Pro, but there is a way. This post explains how.
vExpert HashiCorp Vault KV v2 Lookups from Ansible AWX This post explains how to perform HashiCorp Vault KV v2 secret lookups from Ansible AWX
vExpert SSL Validation in Python Virtual Environments for HashiCorp Vault lookups in Ansible AWX When using a Python virtual environment (venv) and HVAC to perform HashiCorp Vault lookups from Ansible, you may run in to SSL verification errors.
vRO vRO SecureString vs EncryptedString What's the difference between a SecureString and an EncryptedString in vRealize Orchestrator (vRO)? This post explains it.
VMware Cloudbase-Init with vRealize Automation and vSphere - No CD Drive! This article explains how to use Cloudbase-Init with vRealize Automation and vSphere without requiring a CD drive in every Windows VM.
Windows Installing Cloudbase-Init on Windows for vRA Customisation A brief guide to installing Cloudbase-Init in a VMware vSphere VM template to use with vRealize Automation 8
CentOS Cloud-Init with vRealize Automation and vSphere - No CD Drive! This article explains how to use Cloud-Init with vRealize Automation and vSphere without requiring a CD drive in every VM.
Retrospective Personal Retrospective - February 2021 My first personal retrospective, February 2021. Includes customer work, vExpert, OCTO and more!
vRA Automatic Deployment Names in vRA 8.x How to make vRealize Automation (vRA) deployment names unique without having to bother users with entering one
General The importance of applying software updates Are we conditioned by our smart phones to assume that security is taken care of automatically? When it comes to business and enterprise software it's best to stay on top of updates.
vRA Featured vRealize Automation (vRA) 8.3 GA vRealize Automation 8.3 is out. There are a number of exciting changes included. These are my top picks from them.
AWS How to Migrate Vault Auto-Unseal to AWS KMS With an AWS KMS key defined, migrating an existing Vault installation from using Shamir keys to AWS KMS auto-unseal requires only a few steps to complete.
Vault How to Configure AWS KMS for Vault Auto-Unseal Rather than manually unsealing Vault in the homelab every time updates are applied, it'd be preferable to have it auto-unseal using an AWS Key Management Server. This is how to setup the AWS part.
AutoUG Featured Introducing the Automation User Group Passionate about automation? Then this could be the user group community for you! The Automation User Group (AutoUG) is getting ready for its first event.
HashiCorp Preparing Vault for integration with vRA Before vRA / vRO can automate Vault and create high-entropy passwords for new workloads, Vault must be prepared. This post explains the steps taken.
General Reflecting on 5 years at VMware Five years ago this month I joined VMware. With this milestone reached I wanted to share some brief thoughts about my experiences to date and the future.
vExpert Integrating VMware Code Stream and Packer Not content to build vSphere templates periodically, this introduction shows how VMware Code Stream and Packer can be combined to trigger builds from Git updates.
vRA Custom Naming in vRealize Automation 8.x (Pt. 2) Having created a mechanism to generate unique hostnames previously, this article follows on with how to integrate the functionality with vRA 8.x.
vRA Custom Naming in vRealize Automation 8.x (Pt. 1) vRA 8.x offers several built-in mechanisms for naming workloads. This article covers them briefly and starts the process to go fully custom.