Random Technology thoughts from an Irish Virtualization Geek (who enjoys saving the world in his spare time).
LifeOfBrianOC and I recently had cause to build out some new lab infrastructure to host nested ESXi VMs. As part of that build we wanted to be able to deploy identical nested testbeds i.e multiple testbeds, each with their own set of nested hosts and supporting infrastructure, each of which would use the same VLAN... Continue Reading →
So I finally got the time and opportunity to start contributing to this great initiative. I've done lots of work with and around PowerVCF before, but never actually contributed code. Thats changed with this release. Hurrah! In my spare time, I've been doing a lot of PowerShell development on internal tooling used to prepare for... Continue Reading →
As part of some recent testing, I had the need for a quick and easy backup tool for creating imaged-based backups of my various virtual machines and appliances. To get moving quickly I decided to use a little tool called ghettoVCB created by William Lam (https://www.virtuallyghetto.com/2015/05/ghettovcb-vib-offline-bundle-for-esxi.html). It's easy to install, has a near zero learning... Continue Reading →
Now that we have two domain controllers in the root domain, we are going to add a child domain. In this case, we will build Child Domain 1 DC01. The same function can be used (by simply passing different parameters) to build Child Domain 2 DC01. PowerShell Script for New Child Domain This is the... Continue Reading →
In this post we are going to build on what we did in Post VII where we built a new forest. This time we are going to add a second domain controller to that root domain ie Forest Root DC 02 PowerShell Script for New Domain Controller This is the complete function that: Customizes the... Continue Reading →
Now that we have built a SQL Server successfully, lets go back a step and show how we can build out Active Directory in the lab, lifting minimum fingers in the process. You might remember the below diagram from Post V in the series. Same basic flow will apply to building the AD Boxes, but... Continue Reading →
Now that we have all the supporting material lets create a short PowerShell script that creates the VM with: User specified hardware settingsCorrect boot environmentAdditional CD ROM for answer filesMounts the ISOsStarts the VMLaunches VMware Remote Console (so that we can watch our baby grow! ) PowerShell Script Function newAutoDeployedVM { Param( [Parameter(mandatory=$true)] [String]$target, [Parameter(mandatory=$true)]... Continue Reading →
Ok, so this the last bit of creating the customization detail for a new VM. In this case, we will show how to do it for a SQL server. I'll add more posts asynchronously that shows how to do standard member servers as well as domain controllers This is the part of the overall process... Continue Reading →
Typically, unattended windows installations are controlled using an autounattend.xml file stored at the root of the installation media. However, they can be stored at the root of any drive mounted to the machine during boot (Windows will search them all) The installation itself uses several passes (consider these to be stages of installation). You can... Continue Reading →
There a a few ways to assembles binaries for installation. Some binaries are easy in that they are already in the form of ISOs, like Windows or SQL installers. You could just attach them to a new VM and boot from them - but there are still a few gotchas which mean you need to... Continue Reading →
Rather than give you all a nose bleed with the 500 lines of JSON input I used in my lab, I thought it might be easier to just show you a sample JSON snippet and some PowerShell code to read it in and various ways to reference it. That way when you see variables in... Continue Reading →
As part of the work I do for VMware, I build and reset and build labs over and over again. As any engineer with a touch of OCD will attest to, gremlins get in somehow/somewhere, and after a few resets things start to look like the Stranger Things Upside-Down version of themselves. There is nothing... Continue Reading →
If you have a lot of configurations in a lab the way we do in VMware, then most of them are using private networks that are not even routable inside your company, let alone the internet. So you can very quickly get into a nested rathole of RDP/SSH sessions from your terminal to a jump-box... Continue Reading →
Here's a little something I found in my folder of scripts that someone else might find useful. I created it to backup vRealize Automation Entitlements for Catalog Items and Resource Actions. Originally it was needed to ensure we could retain the correct entitlements during an upgrade of Enterprise Hybrid Cloud, but it can be used... Continue Reading →
As part of building, testing (and breaking!) Enterprise Hybrid Cloud, we had the need for reusable, virtual instances of the entire vRealize stack and all the supporting components both beneath it (vCenter, PSC etc) and above it (Avamar and such). So we made extensive use of VMware vCloud Director (vCD) to create templates we could... Continue Reading →
FearDamhan 