Welcome to www.vCROCS.info

July 17, 2021 in - "Your Source for Automation/Monitoring/Logging Content"

I have learned a lot from the vCommunity, Powershell and PowerCLI web sites. I want to use this blog as a way for me to give back. If one person finds anything I post helpful, I will consider my efforts successful. Favorite Quotes: “It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do, We hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.

VMware vRealize SaltStack Config as a Windows Server Admin - Part 1

July 16, 2021 in - "How to use SaltStack Config with Windows Server and PowerShell"

I have recently started looking at using VMware vRealize SaltStack Config. This blog is a work in progress on my journey with Salt. I started at zero and let’s see what I discover as I work towards getting to PROD. So if this topic is interesting to you, check back often. I wanted to learn one of the server configuration products that are available like Salt, Puppet, Chef, Ansible, etc… but I wasn’t sure which would be the best choice long term.

How vRealize Operations can help with Right Sizing VMs

May 15, 2021 in - "Using vROPS Data to help show APP Owners Proper VM Sizing"

vRealize Operations does a good job to show you what the correct number for vCPU/Memory settings should be based on monitoring history. But instead of showing APP owners a screen that just shows what the current VM vCPU/Memory settings are and what the new settings “Should” be, I wanted to show the real data that proves why these changes should be made. It can still be hard for people to understand that taking away a VM resources can make performance better.

Automating Automation (Updated)

April 29, 2021 in - "Using vRO REST API. - (Updated for vRA 8.4)"

I recently had a use case where I wanted to execute a vRealize Orchestrator Workflow by using REST API. There is some documentation available but not a lot of details on how to get and use variables, sdk-objects and bearer token for permission. Here is how I made the vRO REST API calls with PowerShell using vRealize Orchestrator built-into vRA. Steps: Permission: Need to get a Bearer Token from vRO to make REST API Call to execute Workflow.

Open Ports - Zero Trust

April 24, 2021 in - "How to check if ports are open to a remote server"

PowerShell Code Use PowerShell to see if ports are open to a remote server. Living in a zero trust environment can be challenging. Here is some code that I have been using to test for open ports from a Windows server to any type of destination. Just change PortNumber and Destination for your use case. $PortNumber = '443' $Destination = 'Server.vCrocs.info' $socket = New-Object Net.Sockets.TcpClient $socket.Connect($Destination,$PortNumber) if($socket.Connected){ $PortOpened = 'Port: ' + $PortNumber + ' to ' + $Destination +' is Open!

Schedule RVTools Data Export

April 24, 2021 in - "Export RVTools xls Files Everyday"

PowerShell Code I like to create a Scheduled Task in vRealize Orchestrator to create RVTools files everyday. Here is a sample PowerShell script that could be used. The script is also on a 7 day rotation of files and automatically deletes old files. Start-Process -FilePath "C:\Program Files (x86)\Robware\RVTools\RVtools.exe" -ArgumentList '-s vCenter01.vCrocs.info -u administrator@vsphere.local -p "Enter RVTools encrypted Password between the double quotes" -c Exportall2xls -d "G:\RVTools\vCenter01"' -Wait Start-Process -FilePath "C:\Program Files (x86)\Robware\RVTools\RVtools.

vExpert Cloud Management - 2021

April 4, 2021 in - "Cloud Management"

vExpert Cloud Management I am very proud to be part of the VMware vExpert subprogram “Cloud Management”. This is the first year that I was accepted into the subprogram. Almost all my blog posts and talks that I give are about one of the vRealize Products. The (2) Products that I use the most are vRealize Automation and Operations but I will be writing about more of the other Products.

vRealize Operations 8.x - New Features

February 20, 2021 in - "The New Features I use the most."

Donut Charts. This is one of my favorite new features. The donut chart allows you to show a lot of information in a smaller space and makes the Dashboards look more modern and clean looking. I have been replacing the Heat Map Widgets on some of my custom Dashboards with Donut Charts. If you click on the colors of the Donut charts you will then get a list of the data that makes up that color.

vExpert 2021

February 13, 2021 in - "2020, 2021"

vExpert 2020, 2021 VMware vExpert 2020,2021 I am very proud to be part of the VMware vExpert program. This is the second year that I was accepted into the program. One part of the vExpert program that I think is great is that this recognizes people for sharing their knowledge and “Giving Back”. I have crossed paths with people throughout my career that didn’t like sharing what they know.

New Hugo Theme for Blog

February 6, 2021 in - "Tranquil Hugo Theme"

I am always looking at the Hugo Themes to see if there are any new Themes that I liked more than I was currently using. I started looking at the Tranquilpeak Theme and really like how it looked and worked. Tranquilpeak Hugo Theme So I changed my Blog site to the new theme. This Theme works well with all the screen sizes and devices. I also like how the Theme automatically shows the order that the “Posts” and all the “TAGs” that I assign to each article.

Dale Hassinger