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.

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.

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.

About Dale Hassinger

January 1, 2020 in - "Contact Information"

Lead Systems Engineer, SME, vExpert 2020, 2021, vExpert Cloud Management 2021 If you can script it, You can Automate it… VMware vExpert 2020/21 2021 Email: Dale.Hassinger@vCrocs.info Location: Dillsburg, PA My current focus is Enterprise Automation, Monitoring and Logging. I am using VMware vRealize Automation to complete server builds, software installs, schedule VM snap shots, Microsoft 365 automation, Citrix Management, Automate Data Center Flips, Server Decommissions, and many other Day 2 processes… For monitoring I use vRealize Operations for the “Single Pane of Glass” experience.