As a cloud admin, you need a certain toolset to get the job done. Occasionally these tools are not readily available, or updated ones are released and you need to be able to consume them without too much fuss. Running these apps as containers are often a great way to achieve this, and by far the best way of provisioning them is though vRealize Automation. Continue reading
Vulnerability scanning with VMware Harbor 1.2 and Clair – Part 1: Building Harbor
At VMworld 2017 VMware announced the latest release of vSphere Integrated Containers, version 1.2. This release also included updated versions Admiral, VMware’s container management platform; and Harbor, their enterprise-class container registry. VMware makes all these products available to consume from a single OVA which can be Continue reading
Getting the hell out of Amazon Web Services
If you’re a regular reader of my blog you may recall that in June I made the decision to move my production environment to Amazon Web Services. This was because I no longer fancied running my servers (however small and unobtrusive) at home. At first everything went well – the migration to the cloud was seamless and without any issues. Continue reading
“Invalid IP Address input” error when requesting a vRA blueprint via Code Stream
The other day I successfully demonstrated the power of Code Stream at the UK North-West VMUG. The Management Pack for IT DevOps (codenamed “Houdini”) migrated blueprints between Development and Production, and at the end of the session I built a pipeline for deploying a WordPress application in development. Even though the audience wouldn’t have Continue reading
Deploying MySQL on CentOS 7 for vRealize Automation blueprints
Over the weekend I began preparing a multi-tier application blueprint in vRealize Automation for an upcoming talk at the UK North-West VMUG. Rather than re-invent the wheel (and more importantly because I’m lazy), I decided to re-use a blueprint from the VMware {code} site. The one I’d chosen used MySQL, which for a quick and dirty live demo is ideal. Continue reading
Wednesday Tidbit: Fix missing Puppet attributes on vRealize Automation blueprints
Occasionally you come across an issue which bugs the hell out of you. Despite wanting needing to resolve it badly, you know it’s going to be a case of trial and error, and it’s going to consume a lot of your time. The other day I came across one these issues, and just as I suspected, the majority of an evening would be spent trying to resolve it. Continue reading
Wednesday Tidbit: Make sure your vRA directory attributes are correct
Earlier this week I had an issue in vRealize Automation where logged-on usernames were being displayed incorrectly. At first I hoped it was just a cosmetic issue, but as I delved deeper it appeared to be a little more than that, and could be an issue for both users and developers.
Moving Production to Amazon Web Services
For over twenty years I’ve run my own servers at home. For slightly less time I also ran my lab from there, so these servers that ran my email, DNS, web services etc I referred to as “production”. Recently I decided that my home was no longer the place to keep my lab, as heating and noise were becoming increasingly more irritating. Shortly after I decided Continue reading
Wednesday Tidbit: Enable the Timing Profiler in VMware View 7.2
On 20 June 2017 VMware released the latest version of Horizon View – 7.2. Whilst this release contained a number of product features and enhancements, one of the ones most helpful to teams supporting VDI implementations in the new Helpdesk Tool Continue reading
Securing VMware applications with Google Authenticator
Earlier this week I created a tenant in HobbitCloud for a friend with his own development company. He needs to leverage the power of Infrastructure-as-a-Service, but is unwilling to move to the public cloud for all his workloads just yet. However, now that HobbitCloud is accessible externally, it was clear I had to increase security. Continue reading
