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  • Run scripts in guest OS with vRA ABX Actions

    calendar Sep 3, 2021  · edit Sep 20, 2021 · 17 min read · vra abx powershell vmware  ·
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    Run scripts in guest OS with vRA ABX Actions

    Thus far in my vRealize Automation project, I've primarily been handing the payload over to vRealize Orchestrator to do the heavy lifting on the back end. This approach works really well for complex multi-part workflows (like when generating unique hostnames), but it may be overkill for more linear tasks (such as just …


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  • Creating static records in Microsoft DNS from vRealize Automation

    calendar Aug 13, 2021  · edit Jan 18, 2022 · 13 min read · vmware vra vro javascript powershell automation  ·
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    Creating static records in Microsoft DNS from vRealize Automation

    One of the requirements for my vRA deployments is the ability to automatically create a static A records for non-domain-joined systems so that users can connect without needing to know the IP address. The organization uses Microsoft DNS servers to provide resolution on the internal domain. At first glance, this …


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  • Joining VMs to Active Directory in site-specific OUs with vRA8

    calendar Jul 21, 2021 · 7 min read · vmware vra abx activedirectory automation windows  ·
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    Joining VMs to Active Directory in site-specific OUs with vRA8

    Connecting a deployed Windows VM to an Active Directory domain is pretty easy; just apply an appropriately-configured customization spec and vCenter will take care of it for you. Of course, you'll likely then need to move the newly-created computer object to the correct Organizational Unit so that it gets all the right …


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  • Adding VM Notes and Custom Attributes with vRA8

    calendar Jun 1, 2021 · 5 min read · vmware vra vro javascript  ·
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    Adding VM Notes and Custom Attributes with vRA8

    In past posts, I started by creating a basic deployment infrastructure in Cloud Assembly and using tags to group those resources. I then wrote an integration to let vRA8 use phpIPAM for static address assignments. I implemented a vRO workflow for generating unique VM names which fit an organization's established naming …


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  • AdGuard Home in Docker on Photon OS

    calendar May 27, 2021 · 7 min read · docker vmware containers networking security  ·
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    AdGuard Home in Docker on Photon OS

    I was recently introduced to AdGuard Home by way of its very slick Home Assistant Add-On. Compared to the relatively-complicated Pi-hole setup that I had implemented several months back, AdGuard Home was much simpler to deploy (particularly since I basically just had to click the "Install" button from the …


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  • vRA8 Automatic Deployment Naming - Another Take

    calendar May 20, 2021 · 3 min read · vmware vra vro javascript  ·
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    vRA8 Automatic Deployment Naming - Another Take

    A few days ago, I shared how I combined a Service Broker Custom Form with a vRO action to automatically generate a unique and descriptive deployment name based on user inputs. That approach works fine but while testing some other components I realized that calling that action each time a user makes a selection isn't …


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  • vRA8 Custom Provisioning: Part Four

    calendar May 18, 2021  · edit May 20, 2021 · 10 min read · vmware vra vro javascript  ·
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    vRA8 Custom Provisioning: Part Four

    My last post in this series marked the completion of the vRealize Orchestrator workflow that I use for pre-provisioning tasks, namely generating a unique sequential hostname which complies with a defined naming standard and doesn't conflict with any existing records in vSphere, Active Directory, or DNS. That takes care …


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  • vRA8 Custom Provisioning: Part Three

    calendar Apr 19, 2021  · edit Oct 1, 2021 · 9 min read · vmware vra vro javascript powershell  ·
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    vRA8 Custom Provisioning: Part Three

    Picking up after Part Two, I now have a pretty handy vRealize Orchestrator workflow to generate unique hostnames according to a defined naming standard. It even checks against the vSphere inventory to validate the uniqueness. Now I'm going to take it a step (or two, rather) further and extend those checks against …


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  • vRA8 Custom Provisioning: Part Two

    calendar Apr 2, 2021  · edit Mar 23, 2022 · 23 min read · vmware vra vro javascript  ·
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    vRA8 Custom Provisioning: Part Two

    We last left off this series after I'd set up vRA, performed a test deployment off of a minimal cloud template, and then enhanced the simple template to use vRA tags to let the user specify where a VM should be provisioned. But these VMs have kind of dumb names; right now, they're just getting named after the user who …


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  • vRA8 Custom Provisioning: Part One

    calendar Mar 29, 2021 · 9 min read · vmware vra  ·
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    vRA8 Custom Provisioning: Part One

    I recently shared some details about my little self-contained VMware homelab as well as how I integrated {php}IPAM into vRealize Automation 8 for assigning IPs to deployed VMs. For my next trick, I'll be crafting a flexible Cloud Template and accompanying vRealize Orchestrator workflow that will help to deploy and …


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  • Integrating {php}IPAM with vRealize Automation 8

    calendar Feb 22, 2021  · edit Jul 25, 2022 · 24 min read · python rest vmware vra networking  ·
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    Integrating {php}IPAM with vRealize Automation 8

    In a previous post, I described some of the steps I took to stand up a homelab including vRealize Automation (vRA) on an Intel NUC 9. One of my initial goals for that lab was to use it for developing and testing a way for vRA to leverage phpIPAM for static IP assignments. The homelab worked brilliantly for that …


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  • Using VS Code to explore giant log bundles

    calendar Feb 18, 2021 · 2 min read · logs vmware  ·
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    Using VS Code to explore giant log bundles

    I recently ran into a peculiar issue after upgrading my vRealize Automation homelab to the new 8.3 release, and the error message displayed in the UI didn't give me a whole lot of information to work with: I connected to the vRA appliance to try to find the relevant log excerpt, but doing so isn't all that …


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  • VMware Home Lab on Intel NUC 9

    calendar Feb 5, 2021 · 13 min read · vmware homelab vra lcm  ·
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    VMware Home Lab on Intel NUC 9

    I picked up an Intel NUC 9 Extreme kit a few months back (thanks, VMware!) and have been slowly tinkering with turning it into an extremely capable self-contained home lab environment. I'm pretty happy with where things sit right now so figured it was about time to start documenting and sharing what I've done. Hardware …


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  • PSA: halt replication before snapshotting linked vCenters

    calendar Jan 30, 2021 · 3 min read · vmware  ·
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    PSA: halt replication before snapshotting linked vCenters

    It's a good idea to take a snapshot of your virtual appliances before applying any updates, just in case. When you have multiple vCenter appliances operating in Enhanced Link Mode, though, it's important to make sure that the snapshots are in a consistent state. The vCenter vmdird service is responsible for …


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  • Logging in to Multiple vCenter Servers at Once with PowerCLI

    calendar Sep 16, 2020 · 2 min read · vmware powercli  ·
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    Logging in to Multiple vCenter Servers at Once with PowerCLI

    I manage a large VMware environment spanning several individual vCenters, and I often need to run PowerCLI queries across the entire environment. I waste valuable seconds running Connect-ViServer and logging in for each and every vCenter I need to talk to. Wouldn't it be great if I could just log into all of them at …


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John Bowdre

Wrangler of imaginary computers.
VMware vExpert
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Featured Posts

  • VMware Tanzu Community Edition Kubernetes Platform in a Homelab
  • Secure Networking Made Simple with Tailscale
  • Burn an ISO to USB with the Chromebook Recovery Utility
  • Setting up Linux on a new Lenovo Chromebook Duet (bonus arm64 complications!)

Recent Posts

  • Tailscale on VMware Photon OS
  • K8s on vSphere: Building a Kubernetes Node Template With Packer
  • Upgrading a Standalone vSphere Host With esxcli
  • Using the vSphere Diagnostic Tool Fling
  • Removing and Recreating vCLS VMs
  • Gitea: Ultralight Self-Hosted Git Server

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