Tech Blogs

Terraform plan and apply on Azure with no stored secrets. GitHub proves its identity with a short-lived OIDC token, two scoped managed identities split a read-only plan from a write apply, and a required reviewer approves every apply. Run on a real subscription: plan, approval gate, apply, then a tag change and a VM resize through the same pipeline.

Bringing a live production Static Web App under Terraform with aztfexport. The export pulled in 239 resources, the first plan threw over 200 errors, and two fixes nearly unlinked the GitHub deployment and replaced both custom domains. What actually worked, and how it ended at seven managed resources.

A Storage Account with public network access disabled entirely, reachable only through a Private Endpoint and a Private DNS zone inside the spoke VNet. Includes the azurerm v5 provider gotchas that break older snippets, and five validation checks with real portal and CLI evidence — endpoint approved, A record on 10.20.2.4, and a clean HTTP 403 from outside the VNet.

A full landing-zone network foundation built in Terraform — hub and spoke VNets with peering, a deny-by-default NSG, remote state in Azure Storage, and a Linux VM with no public IP at all. Includes the six real errors hit during the build, full test evidence for all nine checks, and one unexpected finding — "no public IP" does not mean "no internet access".

When the normal VMware Tools uninstaller is missing or broken, this script tears out every orphaned registry key, file, and service it left behind — walking every UserData SID (not just SYSTEM), de-duplicating multiple leftover installer entries, and matching services that don't even have "VMware" in their display name. Essential cleanup before a VMware-to-Hyper-V or other hypervisor migration.

Export Org and Org VDC capacity — CPU, RAM and per-storage-profile usage — across your entire VMware Cloud Director estate with one PowerCLI script. Covers a three-tier fallback for when the StorageProfiles property won't hydrate, a Search-Cloud query workaround, and the classic comma-vs-period decimal bug in Out-GridView.

A practical step-by-step guide to performing a Windows Server in-place upgrade on Azure VMs — covering disk resizing, snapshot rollback, upgrade media disk creation, boot diagnostics monitoring, and post-upgrade validation.

Learn how to use Azure Automation Runbooks to schedule tasks, start/stop VMs, and orchestrate complex workflows using PowerShell 7.4 and Managed Identity — no stored credentials required.

Deleting an organisation in VMware Cloud Director 10.4.x–10.6.x fails with a port profiles error? This is a known VCD bug. Learn how to force-delete the organisation via the built-in API Explorer and re-sync NSX-T application port profiles — no Broadcom support call required.

Replaced the HTTPS certificate in VMware Cloud Director 10.6.1 following Broadcom KB 379244 — everything looked fine until VM console access broke days later. Here's the undocumented step under Administration → Public Addresses that fixes it.

A practical guide to configuring Dell PowerEdge R660 BIOS settings at scale using the iDRAC Redfish REST API — no manual console access required. Covers authentication, reading current BIOS attributes, pushing configuration changes, and scheduling a reboot to apply settings.

A complete guide to implementing JML automation using PowerShell and the Microsoft Graph API for Azure Entra ID.

Automatically scan all App Registrations for expiring secrets and certificates using a Managed Identity — no stored credentials, no Office 365 licence required.

Update UserVars.ProductLockerLocation across all ESXi hosts in a vCenter cluster via the vSphere AdvancedOption API. Point hosts to a shared datastore path so VMs always pick up the latest VMware Tools automatically on restart.

Stop clicking through wizards. One Jenkins parameterised build provisions a complete vSphere VM — CPU, RAM, up to five disks, static IP, DNS, hostname — in under 10 minutes. Covers the script, Jenkins CI setup, and GitHub SCM integration for Continuous Delivery.

Stop manually resizing VMs in vCenter. A Jenkins Parameterised Build powered by PowerShell & PowerCLI safely shuts down, resizes CPU and/or Memory, verifies the change, and powers the VM back on — with a full audit trail and email alerting across PROD and DR vCenter environments.

Stop chasing snapshots manually. A Jenkins Parameterised Build powered by PowerCLI scans your Prod and DR vCenters on a cron schedule, exports a timestamped CSV report, and fires an automated email alert with the attachment — all with zero hardcoded credentials.

Eliminate manual vCenter sessions. A Jenkins Parameterised Build powered by PowerCLI expands up to five VMDK disks, optionally creates a new disk, and validates datastore free space before making any change — with a full audit trail across Prod and DR vCenter environments.

Audit every disk, CPU, and memory reconfiguration across your PROD and DR vCenters using the vSphere Task & Event Manager APIs. A Jenkins scheduled pipeline exports timestamped CSV reports and emails them to your ops team automatically — with zero hardcoded credentials.

End-to-end walkthrough of the full HashiCorp Azure track — install Terraform CLI, authenticate via Service Principal, build infrastructure with azurerm, manage changes, destroy resources, use variables & outputs, and store state remotely in HCP Terraform. All 8 official tutorials in one post.

End-to-end ESXi patching automation driven by a Jenkins Parameterised Build — DRS set to Manual, intelligent vMotion with memory & CPU threshold checks, Zerto VRA evacuation via REST API, ESXCLI software profile update, reboot wait, post-patch profile verification, and full cluster restoration with email notifications at every milestone.