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Jun 30 / Greg

Resize Windows Disk On VMWare Via Ansible Automation Platform

I really like having little bite sized demos, though some argue telling a big story works best…I suppose a mix of the two is likely the real solution.
This demo shows the Ansible Automation Platform(AAP) connecting to VMware Vcenter to expand a disk on a windows host. AAP then connects to the disk and expands the disk in windows itself.

Video Demo

Playbooks

You can find the playbook in question here.

I’ll breakdown some of its parts here:

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  tasks:
  - name: Connect to VMWare and shutdown guest
    community.vmware.vmware_guest:
      hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
      username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
      password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
      datacenter: "{{ datacenter_name }}"
      validate_certs: no
      name: "{{ inventory_hostname }}"
      state: shutdownguest
    delegate_to: localhost
    failed_when: vm_shutdown.instance.hw_power_status != 'poweredOff' and vm_shutdown.changed == false
    register: vm_shutdown
 
  - name: Wait 15 seconds
    ansible.builtin.pause:
      seconds: 15
 
  - name: Connect to VMWare and resize disk on VM
    community.vmware.vmware_guest_disk:
      hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
      username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
      password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
      datacenter: "{{ datacenter_name }}"
      validate_certs: no
      name: "{{ inventory_hostname }}"
      disk:
        - size_mb: 2000
          state: present
          unit_number: 1
          scsi_controller: 0
          scsi_type: 'lsilogicsas'
    delegate_to: localhost
    register: disk_facts
 
  - name: Connect to VMWare and boot up guest
    community.vmware.vmware_guest:
      hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
      username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
      password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
      datacenter: "{{ datacenter_name }}"
      validate_certs: no
      name: "{{ inventory_hostname }}"
      state: poweredon
    delegate_to: localhost

Most of the work in the above is done via the vmware_guest modules from the vmware collection.
I first shutdown the guest.
I then do the resize on the disk in question. Something I learned is that, while optional, the scsi_type parameter needs to be specified. It will assume a default(likely other than is already set), and then your VM guest likely won’t boot!
After the resize is done, I boot the guest back up.

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  - name: Wait 300 seconds, but only start checking after 15 seconds
    wait_for_connection:
      delay: 15
      timeout: 300
 
  - name: Connect to windows host and expand the drive
    ansible.windows.win_powershell:
      script: |
        # Variable specifying the drive you want to extend
        $drive_letter = "E"
        # Script to get the partition sizes and then resize the volume
        $size = (Get-PartitionSupportedSize -DriveLetter $drive_letter)
        Resize-Partition -DriveLetter $drive_letter -Size $size.SizeMax

The last little bit is pretty straight forward.
I first use the wait for connection module to repeatedly test until the guest is booted back up and ready to be connected to.
I next use the win_powershell module to tell the drive to expand using the newly adjusted vmware disk size. Note that I could have used an ansible module, but at the time of creation I was trying to demonstrate how to use powershell scripts directly.

Conclusion

While this isn’t revolutionary, it is very convenient. I can imagine monitoring my server infrastructure for disk utilization. When I violate a certain threshold my monitoring system will call the AAP API and pass over the name of the host, and the offending drive. AAP can then automatically connect to the server and resize the disk, then create a ticket or send an email. This feels pretty powerful to me!

As always, if you have any questions or comments I’d love to hear them.
Thanks and happy automating!

Jun 19 / Greg

Why Am I Saskia Wilson-Brown

Hey everybody, I’m Greg Sowell and this is Why Am I, a podcast where I talk to interesting people and try to trace a path to where they find themselves today.  My guest this go around is Saskia Wilson-Brown.  Saskia has been in and around TV production for some time, even being part of the Silver Lake Film Festival in LA.  She’s also a great podcaster, and BTW has founded and runs the Institute of Art and Olfaction.  More than that she’s a driven artist that tears walls down so that people can connect with each other and connect with arts of all kinds no matter who wants to keep the secrets locked away.  She’s kind of a badass.  At any rate, I hope you enjoy this conversation with Saskia.
Youtube version here:
If you want to support the podcast you can do so via https://www.patreon.com/whyamipod (this gives you access to bonus content including their Fantasy Restaurant!)
Jun 18 / Tommy Croghan

The Brother WISP 163 – Preseem Sponsor Highlight

 

This week we have Tommy, John Osman, Greg Lipschitz, Jeremy Austin and Dan Siemon to talk about Preseem as our new sponsor

**Sponsors**
Sonar.Software
Towercoverage.com
Preseem.com
**/Sponsors**

This week we talk about:

0:00:59 Introduction
0:05:30 Preseem elevator pitch
0:09:16 Tommy’s Story with Preseem
0:12:28 What is QOE?
0:15:35 Onboarding Time and what Preseem boxed look like (Hardware requirements)
0:19:50 Question “How many queues can you handle?”
0:22:40 CGNAT?
0:25:04 QOS is Bunk!
0:28:59 Is Preseem afraid of the availability of FQ_Codel/Cake in commodity (Mikrotik) hardware?
0:32:40 Is Preseem only for Wireless? What about other Tech? (DSL, Fiber, Cable, PTMP technologies)
0:34:29 The value of Preseem, our access networks need improvement. Why Preseem
0:50:30 Does not replace actually having sufficient bandwidth! But can help.
0:53:41 The classical solution of throwing bandwidth at all of the problems doesn’t help either.
0:57:40 Where does Preseem+ fit in?
0:59:48 What about when you have multiple ingress/egress paths? (diverse upstreams in your network)
1:04:30 What about when the Preseem box fails?
1:06:30 Is Docker an option?
1:08:50 What about integration with other platforms? (Billing software)
1:10:30 Can I just get Preseem+?
1:12:05 IPv6 support?
1:16:10 Multi-Queueing?
1:20:56 Transport Technologies beyond IPv4 and IPv6? (VLAN, VXLAN, MPLS)
1:20:20 Why the WISP Market and what’s the future look like for other technologies?
1:28:40 Goal is improving customer’s experience. (both you and your customer’s)
1:32:00 How to get ahold of Preseem.
1:36:45 How to get ahold of Greg
1:38:07 How to get ahold of John

https://www.youtube.com/c/Preseem
John’s site: https://www.miscreantsinaction.com/

Jun 12 / Greg

Why Am I Anna Ream

Hey everybody, I’m Greg Sowell and this is Why Am I, a podcast where I talk to interesting people and try to trace a path to where they find themselves today.  My guest this go around is Anna Ream.  She came with an impressive list of “who she is”, but the highlights are: practicing artist, photographer, mother, wife, purchaser of things, and person of faith.  We discuss how photography is a super power that opens avenues through which Anna is able to examine herself, her life, and her feelings.  At the end of all of it she has a tangible object that can then help others along their path.  I hope you enjoy this chat with Anna.
Youtube version here:
Please show them some love on their socials here:http://www.annaream.com/about/, https://www.instagram.com/anna_ream/.
If you want to support the podcast you can do so via https://www.patreon.com/whyamipod (this gives you access to bonus content including their Fantasy Restaurant!)
Jun 6 / Tommy Croghan

The Brother WISP 162 – Ubiquiti 60 GHz gear, Mikrotik V7, Flat network recommendations and more

 

This week we have Tommy and Jon

**Sponsors**
Sonar.Software
Towercoverage.com
**/Sponsors**

This week we talk about:
Ubiquiti 60 GHz gear announcements, various 60 GHz gear and a cool teardown video, AF60 and AF60LR are Class A Radios Use Caution when placing them!

1 Petabit per second per strand of Fiber

Ubiquiti Edgeswitch s16 Issues and Switch/Power Discussion.

Mikrotik ROS V7.3 RC1 & 2 and Comments on Cake Queues

Flat network woes and recommendations for avoiding annoying things 1:19:00 TCP Windowing issue?

Mimosa Announcements

Subscription Models and how unpopular they are.

Tom Smith BGP on BSD, X86 Routers

Relevant Links

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxC5R…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JI9fv…

https://newatlas.com/telecommunicatio…

Fiber Store’s Mux ponder https://www.fs.com/products/148739.html

https://www.businesswire.com/news/hom…

Tom Smith did a presentation at BSDCan about BGP on BSD https://www.bsdcan.org/events/bsdcan_…

Here’s the video:(if you don’t see it, hit refresh)

Jun 5 / Greg

Why Am I Tanya Candler

Hey everybody, I’m Greg Sowell and this is Why Am I, a podcast where I talk to interesting people and try to trace a path to where they find themselves today.  My guest this go around is Tanya Candler.  Tanya has lived a lot of lives: she was in the metal band Kitty in the 90s, was a dental technician for a little while, does voice acting and coaching, is an awesome podcaster, and a proud mama!  She pulls zero punches, takes zero ducks, always speaks her mind, but she’s very thoughtful, kind, and nurturing while she does it…quite an interesting set of traits.  I hope you enjoy this chat with Tanya.
Youtube version here:
If you want to support the podcast you can do so via https://www.patreon.com/whyamipod (this gives you access to bonus content including their Fantasy Restaurant!)
May 29 / Greg

Fantasy Restaurant Mountain Head

Welcome to the warmup exercise for the Why Am I podcast called “the Fantasy Restaurant.”  In here my guests get to pick their favorite: drink, appetizer, main, sides, and dessert.  There are no wrong answers!  These dudes read the brief…some of their choices are straight out of Indiana Jones LOL.  I hope you enjoy this crazy meal with Mountain Head.
Youtube version here:
Please show them some love on their socials here: https://www.mountainheadmusic.com/, https://www.instagram.com/mountainhead/.
Inspired by one of my favorite podcasts: https://www.offmenupodcast.co.uk/
If you want to support the podcast you can do so via https://www.patreon.com/whyamipod (this gives you access to bonus content including their Fantasy Restaurant!)