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.

How to use PowerShell Modules with vRA 8.2

January 18, 2021 in - "Options to use PowerShell Modules"

I like to review VMware vRA (vRealize Automation) 8.2 as a Microsoft Windows Server Admin. Most of the reviews you see are creating Linux VMs and customizing the OS using tools for Linux. I create Windows/Linux VMs and customize the OS using a new feature added to vRA 8.x, Action Based Extensibility (ABX) with PowerShell. In my vRA 7.6 environment I use a PowerShell Host to run processes and on the PowerShell Host is where I install all the PS Modules that I use.

How to be successful with VMware vRealize Products in your environment

January 15, 2021 in - "Recipe for Success"

I often get asked to speak to different organizations about what I have accomplished with the VMware vRealize Suite of products. The one question that almost always gets asked is how are you able to do everything that you have setup in your environment. After being asked this question a lot I thought I would give my thoughts in a Blog Post. Here is my “Recipe for Success”: Ingredients: Enjoy what you do.

Creating Charts with ChartJS and displaying in vRealize Operations

January 3, 2021 in - "ChartJS"

I like the idea of using VMware vRealize Operations as the “Single Pane of Glass” for all monitoring. The Citrix Team recently asked me if I could show license usage within vRealize Operations. They wanted to see the highest usage in the last 30 days, 10 days and 24 hours. Citrix license usage is not built into vROPS but I have used the “Text Display Widget” to show other information within vROPS.

ESXi on Raspberry PI

October 11, 2020 in - "Running ESXi on Raspberry PI..."

I have always be fascinated with everything that you can do with a Raspberry PI. When VMware released their Fling to install ESXi on the Raspberry PI I have become even more fascinated. An ESXi Host for the Home Lab for $50. Sign me up. During VMworld 2020, VMware announced that they would be releasing a Fling to install ESXi on the Raspberry PI. Before the VMworld session was over I had a new Raspberry PI ordered and it was delivered the next day, ahead of the Fling release, so that I would be ready.

vBrownbag VMworld Presentation

October 1, 2020 in - "vRealize Operations"

How to use vRealize Operations as your monitoring “Single Pane of Glass” For the 2020 VMware VMworld my presentation for the vBrownbag TechTalks was selected. Learn how to use the “Text Display” Widget on Dashboards to display data that is not within vRealize Operations. Display Weather Forecasts, Radar Maps, Data from SQL DBs on your next NOC Dashboard. Socials: Twitter: https://twitter.com/vBrownBag Facebook: https://facebook.com/vBrownBag iTunes: http://bit.ly/vbrownbagitunes https://vBrownBag.com is a community of people who believe in helping other people.

Text Display Widget - More Powerful than just displaying text on a Dashboard...

July 17, 2020 in - "vRealize Operations - Dashboards"

I was recently reviewing some sample custom vRealize Operations Dashboards and I seen where some of the Dashboards had custom text and images. I reviewed how they included the text and images and in some of the sample Dashboards they used the “Text Display” Widget and used a url for the content. They would display images saved on a web server. I thought this was interesting and started reviewing what else could be displayed by using a url with the “Text Display” Widget.

Dale Hassinger