2018

As it turns out, Docker doesn’t officially support any version of Ubuntu past Artful. This is a bit of a challenge if you want to use a state configuration manager such as Ansible to deploy Docker, or even if you want to install it manually. I was able to get this working by using the test branch of the docker release for Ubuntu Cosmic.

I use the line in connection on my desktop to route audio for sources other than my PC to the speaker system attached to my computer. For whatever reason, this is still annoyingly cumbersome, even in 2018. For years, I’ve done this by using Alsamixer, a command line mixer. This is fine enough, I guess, but I wanted something a bit more intuitive. The finished result shows the screen popup below, and is triggered by a key combination that executes a script.

I’m working on a project right now that requires me to do a shared nothing cross vCenter vMotion of about 6K VMs. As you might know, cross vCenter vMotion requires you to specify the ESXi host and the Datastore your VM will live in within the target vCenter; no targeting a cluster of any kind. This brings up some interesting challenges when trying to automate the migration of such a large amount of VMs. One in particular, is the need to target the ESXi host that has the most free space. I am using the function below to do just this – hopefully it helps!

Continuing my series on provisioning VMs on workstation pro outside of the GUI, I’ve got a functional script that will create a linked clone using the vmrun command.

It allows you to specify the following options on the command line:

After posting yesterday about modifying the parent image to allow for hostname changes, I was still looking for something a little more streamlined. I remember reading about the new REST API that is available on workstation, so I wrote a little script to use the Workstation API to clone a VM.

I’ve been brushing up on a few technologies in my home lab, and have found myself using VMware workstation for some simple tasks that don’t require a whole virtualized environment. Workstation didn’t set the hostname of my Ubuntu 18.xx VMs properly after they booted. Maybe I’m a little spoiled by guest OS customization or missing something, but either way, I needed a way to quickly spin up a whole VM and have it’s hostname set correctly. It’s definitely not the cleanest, and I realize I would be better off using the Workstation Pro REST API, but I’m not there yet.

I find myself setting up Raspberry Pi’s more frequently than I’d like. I never ever have a monitor connected. Below is the method I use to get wireless network connectivity without connecting an Ethernet cable or a monitor and keyboard. This is here because I’m tired of sifting through incorrect articles to find this information.

It’s been 4 years since my last post – wow!

Welcome to VirtJunkie! As the name implies, I want a place to write about things I’m looking at or am interested in relating to Virtualization (and automation).

A lot has changed for me since my last post. Shortly after my last post,  I started working for a large Swiss bank that prohibited me from contributing to a blog. I left that company and spent 3 years at Solarwinds where I shouldhave been contributing to this blog more, but I didn’t. It’s my goal here to provide high quality, relevant content.