Posts
Terraform Cloud Agents
Updated November 16, 2020: Terraform Cloud Agents now supports user-configured multipool!
Cloud Assembly API Collection
Greetings, readers! First of all, let me apologize for being absent for so long. I’ve been so incredibly busy with my new role as a product manager that I haven’t been able to blog nearly as much as I would have liked.
Reflections on a Career with VMware
2018 is a special year for me. It marks the 4-year anniversary of my career with VMware – the best company I’ve ever worked for, and arguably one of the best in the world. I was so pleased to come into my office a few weeks ago and find my beautiful 4-year VASA cubes waiting for me – as both someone who bleeds VMware green and blue and as a total contemporary art nerd, I’d really been looking forward to these.
vRealize Automation 7.3 REST API Documentation
With a lion’s roar, a new version of vRA went GA on May 16th – complete with dozens of new features, hundreds of bugfixes, and a heaping helping of love and care. If you’d like more info on anything but that last part, please see the release notes here. But one thing that may be overlooked are the significant improvements that have been made in the vRealize Automation 7.3 REST API Documentation.
Using the new Microsoft Azure Endpoint in vRealize Automation 7.2
After months of planning and development, vRealize Automation 7.2 finally went GA today, and it feels so good! One of the most anticipated and spotlight features of this new release was the Endpoint for Microsoft Azure. I had the privilege of working very closely with the team who delivered this capability, and thought I would take some time to develop a brief POC type guide to help get you started using the new Microsoft Azure Endpoint in vRealize Automation 7.2
What’s in the bag?
Inspired by a post by Michael White at https://notesfrommwhite.net/2016/11/11/whats-in-the-bag/ – I thought it would be interesting to share what’s in my laptop bag as well. And I bet those of you who know me have been curious before – my satchel is definitely my trademark.
vRealize Automation 7 Management Pack for vRealize Operations
If you’re an SDDC administrator, you probably already know about the power and operational visibility that vRealize Operations brings to your environment. With the newly-released vRealize Automation 7 Management Pack for vRealize Operations, that operational visibility can be extended to be tenant-aware and help monitor your vRA environment in a whole new way.
vIDM Attribute Mapping in vRA 7
It seems like the more time I spend with the new VMware Identity Manager (vIDM) in vRealize Automation 7, the more great new capabilities I discover. Today’s post comes directly from a customer request, and discusses how to use vIDM Attribute Mapping in vRA 7.
Configuring vRA 7 for 2 Factor Authentication
One of the most exciting new features in vRealize Automation 7 is the addition of the VMware Identity Manager (or vIDM) to act as the identity provider. This brings a whole host of new capabilities, but one of the key among them is the addition of simple and flexible multi-factor authentication. This guide will walk you through the process of configuring vRA 7 for 2 factor authentication, using Google Authenticator as our example token.
An Elephant Named Multitenancy – Multitenancy in vRealize Automation
I had the opportunity recently to spend a few days in sunny Florida with a group of VMware’s Professional Services leaders. The week was spent discussing, demonstrating and teaching them all about the newly released vRealize Automation 7. We focused on how this release could deliver on the promise of truly flexible, extensible automation and enable our customers’ journey to the cloud. But across many of my sessions and discussions, it became obvious that there was a looming question – an elephant in the room.
vRA 7 – Editing Machine Blueprint Settings
So with the recent release of vRealize Automation 7, I have been showing it off at every chance I get. Whether it’s to customers or to our own internal employees – the response has been overwhelmingly positive!
Reflecting on Hands-On Labs at VMworld 2015
Now that I’ve had a day or two to decompress after another action-packed VMworld, I thought it would be appropriate to just post a few thoughts about the experience.
Creating new vRA Workloads in a specific AD OU
This week, I’ve had several customers individually approach me with this question – how can they specify the OU which a Windows VM should land in when it’s created via vRA?
Have you taken a VMware Hands-On Lab lately?
The title really sort of says it all!
A thank you to all my peers and customers
I’ve been with VMware for just about 18 months now. It’s been one of the most rewarding, challenging, utterly fantastic experiences of my life. We work hard – and we play almost as hard. I’ve taken great pride in my work with my customers and with my peers throughout the company.
Deploying vRealize Automation Workloads from Apple Watch
Like many people (although not as many as would have liked, I suppose,) I got my shiny new Apple Watch yesterday.
vRA Live! – Session 2 – Extensibility
Shameless plug here for an upcoming community event that @virtualjad over at www.virtualjad.com will be hosting later this month – vRA Live! – Session 2 – Extensibility
vRealize Operations Manager Content Pack for Log Insight
Get ready, ops-heads… another exciting announcement from the VMware team. There’s now a formal content pack for Log Insight that will allow the import and visualization of the logs from vRealize Operations Manager 6.x.
Extending vRealize Operations Actions with the vRealize Orchestrator Solution and Workflow Package
When vRealize Operations Management 6.0 was released, VMware increased the flexibility afforded to administrators by adding the concepts of symptoms, recommendations and actions to the product. As you might expect, symptoms are thresholds or characteristics that define when a problem may have occurred or additional guidance may be needed. Recommendations are a customizable way to define what that additional guidance might be – and actions allow you to automate and carry out that guidance.
Important – vRealize Automation VAMI authentication issue when upgrading to 6.2.1
For those of you who will be upgrading your vRealize Automation appliance to 6.2.1 now that the new version is available, please be aware of an issue that you may encounter.
Reflections on my first year at VMware
January 2015 marks the 1-year anniversary of when I started my time with VMware. I thought it would be fitting to spend some time reflecting on what has undoubtedly been the most exciting, challenging and satisfying year of my life.
Monitoring vRealize Automation with vRealize Operations and Hyperic
Have you ever deployed vRealize Automation? If so, then you know that it has a highly complex architecture, made up of dozens of individual components – and has historically been a bit of a hassle to properly monitor.
Creating DISA STIG Scorecards with vCM
In my previous life as an InfoSec guy, I was responsible for assessing, enforcing, and ensuring continuous compliance with all the various baselines for which my organization was responsible. At the forefront of this list were a long list of DISA STIGs (Defense Information Systems Agency Security Technical Implementation Guides) – a daunting task in any size environment with any size staff. Of course, this particular environment was fairly large, and the information assurance technical staff consisted basically of… me… so automating these processes became something of a necessity.
What do Alt-rock, local beer and EUC have in common?
Normally I wouldn’t have much insight on the subject of EUC (End-User Computin,), but my current trip home for the holidays has presented a pretty cool opportunity to highlight this amazing technology, even if it is outside my area of expertise.
Perfect chance for a starting post
Heading home for the holidays and managed a last-minute first class upgrade. What does that mean? A Bloody Mary and some VCAP study time, of course. Now, the aficionado in me says “thanks for the vodka and ketchup, United,” but the part of me that already drank half the cup is full of the holiday spirit and is willing to forgive the transgression.
A new concept in wine-fueled Cloud mayhem
A new year is beginning and with it, a new idea for a blog. Hopefully I’ll actually come up with some content for this one.