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Background VMware wants us to prepopulate an Excel-Sheet with SSH-Keys and SSL-Thumbprints of all ESXi-Hosts, who have been freshly deployed minutes before, which effectivly protects against man-in-the-middle-attacks – maybe a problem in US-datacenters. Beginning with VMware Cloud Foundation Release VCF 4.2 the Cloud-Builder-App verifies the „CN“ of all ESXi-SSL-Certificates, which is in default-setup set to „localhost“ (to be overwritten when connecting to the vCenter so this is seemed to be no issue) – not accepted, CN has to be set to <server-fqdn>. Solution plink.exe „plink.exe“ from the Putty-Suite allows to be called from PowerShell in automated fashion without interactive Password-Prompt. (In May 2021 there seemsRead More →

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Until everything in my lab runs on Terraform, PowerShell will be a valid solution for automation purposes. Install PowerShell 7 https://docs.microsoft.com/de-de/powershell/scripting/install/installing-powershell-core-on-windows?view=powershell-7.1 https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell/releases/tag/v7.0.4 Allow Execution of PowerShell-Scripts Install Power-CLI Allow Self-Signed Certs [Lab Environment]Read More →

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When deploying Virtual-Machines by OVF/OVA-Files in automated manner, eg. using PowerShell of Terraform, it’s crucial to set all individual deployment parameters using the provisioning system. Discover the available Properties using PowerShell OFV-Tool Using PowerShell Create a vCenter-Connection Retrieve the OVF-Config-Object Display all contained Properties („=Keys“) Deployment-Option? Using OVF-Tool OVFTOOL.EXE, provided by VMware (Download OVFTOOL) allows to inspect existing OVA/OFV-Files, too.Read More →

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This is a really nice feature – the Azure Pricing REST-API: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/rest/api/cost-management/retail-prices/azure-retail-prices It pulls a structured JSON-Dataset for (not only) Virtual Machines out of the Azure-Webshop. For example – the following filter: https://prices.azure.com/api/retail/prices?$filter=serviceName eq ‚Virtual Machines‘ and priceType eq ‚Consumption‘ and endswith(armRegionName, ‚europe‘) and (startswith(skuName, ‚D‘) or startswith(skuName, ‚E‘) or startswith(skuName, ‚F‘) or startswith(skuName, ‚M‘)) and endswith(skuName,‘ Spot‘) displays the price for only „VMs“ with specific properties: no Reservation in „.*europe“-Locations with Types „D.*“ or „E.*“ or „F.*“ or „M.*“ Spot-Intances but – if you don’t want „Spot“ Instances, you’d guess this filter-Statement: https://prices.azure.com/api/retail/prices?$filter=serviceName eq ‚Virtual Machines‘ and priceType eq ‚Consumption‘ and endswith(armRegionName, ‚europe‘) andRead More →

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The existing Windows-Comman-Script has been enhanced so it now waits until the Router-VM is up got an IP-Address assigned using DHCP. For Demonstration-Purposes an SSH-Connection will be established. The public-key of my laptop-ssh-client is part of the slipstreamed Router-Configuration. Deploy a Router-VM with hostname „CSY“. Establish an SSH-Connection to the discovered Router-IP: Have a look to the startup-config used: This is the „CMD“-Script used:Read More →

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The following version adds a „-c“ option: „Connected IP-Address“-Check. the script exits, when the Router-VM is up and running and has an usable IP-Address The Script still checks all CDP-Packets received at the specified Interface: If the Sender has the correct „Hostname“ it reads the CDP-Management-IP-Address announced. This IP-Address has to be within the IP-Range of any connected IP-Network at the specified Interface. So it’ll be possible to establish a SSH-Session to the router-VM.Read More →