Welcome to www.vCROCS.info

September 6, 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 4

September 5, 2021 in - "How to use SaltStack Config with Windows Server and PowerShell"

Part 4: The latest item on my journey with VMware vRealize SaltStack Config as a Windows Server Admin will be salt grains. I have a specific use case that made me start looking at grains. In VMware vCenter I use vCenter TAGs to organize VMs. I also use vCenter TAGs to organize VMs in vRealize Operations. I want to use the same logic of using vCenter TAGs in SaltStack Config.

VMware vRealize SaltStack Config as a Windows Server Admin - Part 3

August 27, 2021 in - "How to use SaltStack Config with Windows Server and PowerShell"

Part 3: The next steps on my journey with VMware vRealize SaltStack Config as a Windows Server Admin will be beacons and reactors. Working with Jobs helped me understand how to make changes Ad-Hoc. I have a Job to quickly stop the Print Spooler but what if I always want the state of the Print Spooler Service to be stopped. How do I NOT allow a Server Admin to login into the server and manually start the service?

VMworld 2021 - SaltStack Config Session

August 12, 2021 in - "Manage Windows Workloads Through vRealize Automation SaltStack Config [MCL1895]"

I will be doing a VMworld presentation for the first time at VMworld 2021. I have attended VMworld since 2012 and it has been a goal of mine to do a presentation at a VMworld since the first year I attended. There are always so many good sessions to attend. We are putting many hours into this presentation so that the people attending feel it was worth their time and learn a lot about the topic.

VMware vRealize SaltStack Config as a Windows Server Admin - Part 2

August 5, 2021 in - "How to use SaltStack Config with Windows Server and PowerShell"

Part 2: I have been able to spend more time with VMware vRealize SaltStack Config. Here are some updates on my journey with SaltStack as a Windows Server Admin. Auto-Accept new minions: I wanted new Windows Server builds (minions) to be auto accepted into SaltStack Config instead of someone manually approving new minions. To do this you need to have a reactor.conf file. I created the file in SaltStack Config File Server in base/reactor/reactor.

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"

Part 1: 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.

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.

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.

Dale Hassinger