Smithers – VirtuallyMe

DnsCrypt

Dnscrypt & piHole on Ubuntu

This post is about running pihole and dnscrypt on a ubuntu vm. Basically this replaces my post about setting up a pi for pihole.. for a couple of reasons. Firstly the dnscrypt project over at download.dnscrypt.org has stopped and is no longer supported. and secondly I found that every time…

Posted on 19th February 201819th February 2018 by Smithers by Smithers

Automation

Updating your PowerCLI module

When updating your PowerCLI module you may find that some modules cant be upgraded if they are in use. This tends to occur if you modify your powershell profile to import the vmware.powercli module when you start powershell. The manul work around for this is Stop all running instances of…

Posted on 14th February 2018 by Smithers by Smithers

PowerCLI

Deleting a VSAN diskgroup

After disabling VSAN on a cluster I found that the VSAN diskgroup remained behind. (If it wasnt removed before disabling VSAN.) In case you did not properly remove a host and still have disks that can not be claimed by vSAN because they still show a state of “In-use for…

Posted on 25th January 201825th January 2018 by Smithers by Smithers

PowerCLI

Decrypting a System.Security.SecureString.

Sometimes it's useful to be able to decrypt a System.Security.SecureString. For example recently I was writing a script to change root passwords. I needed the user to enter a new root password twice and compare them to check the passwords matched. Below a function to do decrypt the System.Security.SecureString to…

Posted on 6th December 2017 by Smithers by Smithers

Administration

Looking up InfoBlox with PowerShell

I'm not the administrator for InfoBlox in my organisation. But simply an InfoBlox user. I recently had a requirement to get host details from InfoBlxo for some automation I was writing. So came up with the following function to return a host's ip details. [crayon-5cba2d14935b6458626191/]

Posted on 6th October 2017 by Smithers by Smithers

Administration

Resetting ILO Password from ESXi host using PowerCLI

Occasionally things go wrong and you end up in a situation where the ILO password has been set to somthing unknown or the password has been lost through time. This PowerCLI script utilises Posh-SSH to reset the ILO Administrator Password from the ESXi OS. Dependencies for this script are Posh-SSH…

Posted on 26th June 201729th June 2017 by Smithers by Smithers

Automation

Getting your Asset license Details from vCenter

I had a requirement to get the asset license information from vcenter. this was to list the license codes by asset rather than by the product registered in vcenter. I also have multiple vcenters to connect to. Here is a script that will get the job done for you. [crayon-5cba2d1493ecf418721976/]

Posted on 13th June 201713th June 2017 by Smithers by Smithers

DnsCrypt

Use for a Raspberry Pi – Dnscrypt and PiHole

Like many I got a Raspberry Pi and then it sat in a draw for years while I tried to think of a project for it. So I finally got around to a use for my raspberry pi. Updated to include new crontab for updaing pi hole and adding i-blocklists…

Posted on 18th May 20176th September 2017 by Smithers by Smithers

Automation

Running Powershell as Admin

Some times you just need to run powershell as an administrator on your system. For me this was when I wrote a script that creates a WinPE ISO when loading DISM and Imagex I needed to be administrator. I cant take credit for the code, as I found it online.…

Posted on 11th May 201711th May 2017 by Smithers by Smithers

Automation

Install-the-dell-perccli-vib-part-2 Getting a report from it.

This relates to the post install-the-dell-perccli-vib-part-1 Once the PercCli is installed we may want to actually use it to report back some things about the percCli. For me the point of installing the PercCLI was to then report on whether this node was ready for vSan with firmware / drivers…

Author: Smithers

DnsCrypt

Dnscrypt & piHole on Ubuntu

Posted on 19th February 201819th February 2018 by Smithers by Smithers

Automation

Updating your PowerCLI module

Posted on 14th February 2018 by Smithers by Smithers

PowerCLI

Deleting a VSAN diskgroup

Posted on 25th January 201825th January 2018 by Smithers by Smithers

PowerCLI

Decrypting a System.Security.SecureString.

Posted on 6th December 2017 by Smithers by Smithers

Administration

Looking up InfoBlox with PowerShell

Posted on 6th October 2017 by Smithers by Smithers

Administration

Resetting ILO Password from ESXi host using PowerCLI

Posted on 26th June 201729th June 2017 by Smithers by Smithers

Automation

Getting your Asset license Details from vCenter

Posted on 13th June 201713th June 2017 by Smithers by Smithers

DnsCrypt

Use for a Raspberry Pi – Dnscrypt and PiHole

Posted on 18th May 20176th September 2017 by Smithers by Smithers

Automation

Running Powershell as Admin

Posted on 11th May 201711th May 2017 by Smithers by Smithers

Automation

Install-the-dell-perccli-vib-part-2 Getting a report from it.

Posted on 24th February 201727th February 2017 by Smithers by Smithers