VCF 9.0 GA Mental Model Part 6: Topology and Identity Boundaries for Single Site, Dual Site, and Multi-Region

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TL;DR Architecture Diagram Table of Contents Scope and terminology guardrails You will move faster as an organization if you treat these as non-negotiable guardrails: For topology conversations, you also need consistent physical vocabulary: Assumptions Decision criteria Use these criteria to keep topology and identity debates grounded in operational outcomes: Challenge You need a topology and … Read more

VCF 9.0 GA Mental Model Part 5: Topology Patterns for Single Site, Two Sites, and Multi-Region

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TL;DR If you want architects, operators, and leadership aligned, you need a topology mental model that starts with VCF objects and only then maps to your physical sites. Architecture Diagram Table of Contents Scenario You are about to deploy VCF 9.0 GA greenfield and you need a shared language for: Scope and version alignment This … Read more

VCF 9.0 GA Mental Model Part 4: Fleet Topologies and SSO Boundaries (Single Site, Dual Site, Multi-Region)

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TL;DR Architecture Diagram Table of Contents Scope and Code Levels This article is written against VCF 9.0 GA terminology and design guidance. Version Compatibility Matrix Use this as your “shared truth” when people ask “what exactly are we talking about?” Component Version Build VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 24755599 VCF Installer 9.0.1.0 24962180 ESX 9.0.0.0 24755229 … Read more

After You Migrate: Cleanup, Governance, and Preventing Unmanaged Disks from Coming Back

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TL;DR Architecture Diagram Table of Contents Scenario You’ve migrated your VMs to managed disks. The outage risk is reduced. Then the quiet problems show up: This post is about making “managed disks everywhere” the default, not a one-time project. What “Done” Looks Like You are done when: Operational Runbook Snapshot Roles: Runbook stages: Cleanup Workflow … Read more

Convert Azure VMs from Unmanaged to Managed Disks: A Production-Ready Runbook

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TL;DR Architecture Diagram Table of Contents Scenario You’ve identified one or more production VMs still using unmanaged disks. You need a runbook you can hand to an operations team that: Core Concepts Prerequisites Operational prerequisites: Technical prerequisites: Version Compatibility Matrix Component What you need How you verify Azure CLI Azure CLI with az vm convert … Read more

Azure Unmanaged Disks Retirement: How to Tell If You’re at Risk Before End of March 2026

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TL;DR Architecture Diagram Table of Contents Scenario You have Azure IaaS VMs that were built years ago. Some of them were created when unmanaged disks were still common, and the underlying VHDs live in storage accounts as page blobs. Everything looks “fine” until it isn’t. You discover this retirement late, you miss the window, and … Read more

VCF 9.0 GA Mental Model Part 3: Day-0 to Day-2 Ownership Across Fleets, Instances, and Domains

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TL;DR If you want clean accountability in VCF 9.0, anchor your operating model to the official hierarchy: VCF private cloud -> VCF fleet -> VCF instance -> VCF domain -> vSphere clusters. This post translates that hierarchy into an operating model: who owns what, where day-0/day-1/day-2 work happens, and how topology (single site vs two … Read more

VCF 9.0 GA Mental Model Part 2: Fleet Services vs Instance Management Planes (and Who Owns What)

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TL;DR Standardize on the official hierarchy: VCF private cloud -> VCF fleet -> VCF instance -> VCF domain -> vSphere clusters. A VCF fleet is managed by one set of fleet-level management components (notably VCF Operations and VCF Automation), while each VCF instance keeps its own management domain and domain-level control planes. Your fastest path … Read more

VCF 9.0 GA Mental Model Part 1: Fleets, Instances, Domains, and the Fleet Management Layer

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TL;DR If you want alignment fast, standardize on this hierarchy and ownership split: Architecture Diagram Table of Contents Scenario You need architects, operations, and leadership to answer the same questions the same way: If you do not standardize vocabulary, you end up with: Series map This topic is usually too big for one post, so … Read more

Unlocking VMware Automation Power: One Python Script to Rule Them All

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Learning Objectives By the end of this article, you will: My Personal Repository on GitHub VMware Repository on GitHub Prerequisites 1. Why Unlock VMware with a Python Mega-Script? While individual scripts are powerful, a well-structured Python script can orchestrate many tasks: 2. How This Script Works This example does all the following: The script is … Read more

Integrating PowerCLI with External APIs and Tools

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Learning Objectives By the end of this article, you will: My Personal Repository on GitHub VMware Repository on GitHub Prerequisites 1. Why Integrate PowerCLI with External APIs? Many organizations automate IT workflows by connecting VMware scripts to ticketing, chat, monitoring, or CI/CD tools. This allows: 2. PowerShell Example: Sending a Slack Notification from PowerCLI Suppose … Read more

Integrating PowerCLI with External APIs and Tools

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Learning Objectives By the end of this article, you will: My Personal Repository on GitHub VMware Repository on GitHub Prerequisites 1. Why Integrate PowerCLI with External APIs? Many organizations automate IT workflows by connecting VMware scripts to ticketing, chat, monitoring, or CI/CD tools. This allows: 2. PowerShell Example: Sending a Slack Notification from PowerCLI Suppose … Read more

Advanced Automation with PowerCLI, Python, NSX, and Aria Operations

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Learning Objectives By the end of this article, you will: My Personal Repository on GitHub VMware Repository on GitHub Prerequisites 1. PowerCLI and NSX-T Integration PowerCLI supports NSX-T for advanced network automation. You can create logical switches, manage firewall rules, and more. Importing the NSX-T Module Import-Module VMware.VimAutomation.Nsx Example: List All NSX Logical Switches # … Read more

Scheduling, Automating, and Best Practices for VMware Scripting

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Learning Objectives By the end of this article, you will: My Personal Repository on GitHub VMware Repository on GitHub Prerequisites 1. Why Schedule VMware Scripts? Routine tasks like VM snapshots, reporting, backups, and audits are time-consuming if performed manually.Scheduling scripts lets you automate these tasks consistently, freeing up time and reducing human error. 2. Using … Read more

Handling Errors and Adding Logging for VMware Automation (PowerCLI & Python)

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Learning Objectives By the end of this article, you will: My Personal Repository on GitHub VMware Repository on GitHub Prerequisites 1. Why Error Handling and Logging Matter Automation is powerful, but things go wrong: network issues, permissions, resource exhaustion, and more.Good scripts should log what happened and handle errors gracefully so you know where to … Read more

Exporting and Visualizing VMware Reports with PowerCLI and Python

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Learning Objectives By the end of this article, you will: My Personal Repository on GitHub VMware Repository on GitHub Prerequisites 1. Exporting VM Inventory with PowerCLI Let’s create a PowerShell script that exports VM info (Name, PowerState, Guest OS, IP, CPU, Memory) to CSV. Save as export_vm_inventory.ps1: # Import PowerCLIImport-Module VMware.PowerCLI# Connect to vCenter (update … Read more

The Ultimate 48 Laws of Power Prompt System

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Introduction The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene is a classic on influence and strategy. But turning those timeless principles into actionable strategies is tough, especially when balancing ethics, workplace politics, and personal growth. That’s why I built the Meta-Loader Prompt v4 for ChatGPT: a dynamic system that adapts to your needs. Whether you … Read more

VM Conversion in Windows Admin Center (Public Preview): A Field Guide for VMware to Hyper-V

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TL;DR: Microsoft’s new VM Conversion extension in Windows Admin Center (WAC) v2 provides a no-cost, agentless way to convert VMware VMs (vCenter 6.x and 7.x) to Hyper-V with minimal downtime using CBT seeding plus a delta cutover. It supports batches up to 10, is cluster-aware, persists static IPs, and auto-maps BIOS to Gen 1 and … Read more

Automating VM Lifecycle Actions and Snapshots with PowerCLI and Python

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Learning Objectives By the end of this article, you will: My Personal Repository on GitHub VMware Repository on GitHub Prerequisites 1. Introduction to VM Lifecycle Automation Managing VMs at scale is much easier when you automate frequent actions like starting, stopping, restarting, and snapshotting. PowerCLI makes these tasks scriptable, while Python lets you orchestrate and … Read more

Connecting to vCenter/ESXi and Retrieving VM Information with PowerCLI and Python

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Learning Objectives By the end of this article, you will: My Personal Repository on GitHub VMware Repository on GitHub Prerequisites 1. The PowerCLI Connection Workflow To automate VMware, you first need to connect to the environment.PowerCLI uses the Connect-VIServer cmdlet to establish a secure session with vCenter or ESXi. 2. Example: PowerShell Script to Connect … Read more