I recently came across a need to review the Storage Policies in use within a vCenter environment and how many objects or virtual machines where using each policy. I saw this as an excuse to refresh my PowerShell skills and wrote a quick function. Source code can be found on my GitHub, here. Check there…
Ever since starting out on my learning journey with Packer and writing my ‘Getting Started’ blog series, I have not stopped learning and developing my templates. I have also learnt a lot from other members of the tech community, such as @mpoore, as well as discovering this repository – vmware-samples. I really wish I had…
I recently did the first NSX upgrade in my Homelab! My Lab is running older hardware, HPE DL380 Gen8’s to be exact and this lead to an upgrade issue when attempting to upgrade my Edge node! Here is the error I was faced with: Edge 3.2.0.0.0.19067356/Edge/nub/VMware-NSX-edge-3.2.0.0.0.19067362.nub switch OS task failed on edge TransportNode c7aa6c6e-1a49-423a-a5c2-87cfa0ba9e1c: clientType…
Whilst continuing to prepare for my VMware Certified Advanced Professional Deploy Exam, I have been configuring vSphere Auto Deploy. As with my blog post on vCenter Profiles, I am covering Auto Deploy as its not something I have ever used in any great depth. As always, I used the official VMware documentation to guide me.…
I recently began playing with Azure DevOps Pipelines as a way to automate various aspects of my lab. As part of this I wanted to send email notifications that I could customize the content of, which I couldn’t get from the built-in notification capability. Since the PowerShell cmdlet; Send-Mail Message is obsolete, I began investigating…
Following the last blog post on create vSphere Port Groups, let’s take a look at creating Tags and Tag Categories. Let’s first look at the process via the GUI, in this case, the vSphere Client. (Based on vSphere 7.0.3c) vSphere Client I wont go into to much detail here as this information is readily available,…
Whilst beginning preparations to take the VMware Certificated Advanced Professional Deploy exam, I have started to look into the features and topics that I’m not overly familiar with. To help with the learning process, I am going to be deploying and configuring these features, and writing blogs on many of the topics to help cement…
As part of my latest homelab setup, I run my vCenter Server VM and Domain Controller VM on VMware Workstation Pro 16 and not on an ESXi host. This is mainly so I don’t have to fire up a noisy rack mount server when I only need my vCenter Server for something. This did leave…
I recently came across an issue with creating subscribed VMware Content Libraries, and deploying templates from a Content Library. An error similar to the one below, would be received when attempting to deploy a VM template or OVF from a Content Library, or an error related to connection issues when setting up a subscribed Content…
As technology moves forward, more and more ways to achieve your goal become available. Many people still rely on the good old trusty GUI to achieve their goal, I know I do at times. Is this because it’s quicker, more comfortable or familiar? Or perhaps because they don’t realise there are other options out there!?…
I decided it was time to add VMware NSX-T to my HomeLab. I had been putting it off for a while but I couldn’t avoid it any longer! Once I had fired up my NSX Manager Nodes and Cluster (I am using version 3.1), I looked to installing certificates. I choose to use a single…
VMworld 2021 is right around the corner! This year we are again unable to attend in person due to COVID-19, however this still gives everyone the chance to attend as its an online event! It is running from the 5th to the 7th October this year – Like many, I have been marking various sessions…
One of the many great features of vRealize Operations Manager (vROPS) is the ability to identify and address over or under sized virtual machines. I was asked a short while ago why the option to resize a VM was unavailable or ‘greyed out’ as you can see below. This feature is something that you need…
Here we are, Part 5! If you have stuck with me through this series, thank you for taking the time. If not, you can catchup with Parts 1-4 by searching my blog! I wanted to end this series with something different to just text, code and images. So I am going to show you the…
Welcome to Part 4 of the Packer Series! In this part we will look at putting together all the block and files we need to deploy a template! As we have touched upon in earlier parts, we have multiple blocks and files available to us that can be used to make up a complete configuration.…
Welcome back to part 3 of my Creating vSphere Templates using Packer series, if you missed part 1 or 2, you can find them here and here. In part 3 we will explore variables! Why would we use variables? Variables allow you to specify customisations to your templating code without having to edit your actual…
Welcome to part 2 of my Getting Started with Packer series, if you missed part 1, you can find it here. In part 2, we will take a look through an important part of creating your vSphere templates; Answer Files and scripts. Firstly, we will be looking at a couple of example scripts that can…
Virtual Machines Templates, why? Templates are a great way to achieve consistent, repeatable and fast virtual machine (VM) deployments, be it an on-premise vSphere environment or cloud based environment. Having up to date VM templates for each of the operating systems you use, is key to being able to deploy infrastructure quickly and easily across…
I recently started looking at prerequisites to a vSphere 7 upgrade, by reviewing any associated upgrades that might be needed. VMware Site Recovery Manager was one product that needed to be upgraded prior to this. I decided I would fire up a quick nested setup in my HomeLab to run through the process before hand…
Recently I tested a vRealize Operation Manager (vROPS) upgrade from version 7.5 to 8.4 ahead of a vCenter 7.0.2 upgrade and thought I would share the process. Something worth noting with this upgrade. vROPS 7.5 is based on a SUSE Linux OS, 8.4 is Photon OS. Before we install the 8.4 update, make sure you…
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Stephan McTighe