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Every Foundation Needs a Home: My VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0.1 Home Lab Build
Read more: Every Foundation Needs a Home: My VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0.1 Home Lab BuildIf you are interested in why it has been so long since my last post, it’s mostly been a focus on my career. Anywho . . . Right off the bat, I can’t thank William Lam enough for all of the work he has done with home labs over the years, and what I am about to detail here is my lessons learned from his Minimal VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF)…
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Dear (Hack) Tech Pundits: Please Stop Saying “Containerizing Workloads is a VMware Replacement”
Read more: Dear (Hack) Tech Pundits: Please Stop Saying “Containerizing Workloads is a VMware Replacement”Miss me? I’m mainlining bourbon for this one, which means that by the time I proofread this sober I will have had to back off like 9 swear words, easy. Thinkingoutcloud update: I may or may not have some posts coming out about the whole VMware/Broadcom goings-on. I haven’t decided yet. They are mostly posts about cloud economics. Best I can say for now is that VMware is no longer…
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See You at VMware Explore 2023
Read more: See You at VMware Explore 2023I forgot to tell you all, dear readers, that I will be heading to VMware Explore in Las Vegas this year! This time I am going as a Sales Engineer representing VMware instead of as a Customer. I was warned by my Leadership that, “it’s a different experience” on the Sales side, saying that, “it’s work” and that I’ll be, “exhausted at the end of the week.” I’m sure that’s…
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A Treatise on Resolving Complex Outages: Engineer for the Unknown Unknowns
Read more: A Treatise on Resolving Complex Outages: Engineer for the Unknown UnknownsI’m not a perfect Engineer, but I’ve been around the block a few times . . . it’s not my first rodeo . . . I have the receipts. I have been fortunate enough to be a part of two Enterprise organizations who, while also not perfect, got a lot of Engineering things right. Sometimes as an SE I run into companies who, let’s just say, are less perfect. Some…
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One Year Later: How Sales Engineering Started vs. How It’s Going
Read more: One Year Later: How Sales Engineering Started vs. How It’s GoingIt’s been a bit. The reasons for that are a bit dark, but I feel like I owe you stans of my blog an explanation: I have just flat-out been blog-uninspired. It’s apropos of nothing. And it’s a, “me problem” not a, “you problem”. Anywho . . . technically this is part 3 of this series. I am calling this the “one year later” post, since I said I would…
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The DevOps Skills Gap: (Re)defining the Role of the Infrastructure Engineer for the Modern Cloud
Read more: The DevOps Skills Gap: (Re)defining the Role of the Infrastructure Engineer for the Modern CloudMy goal at the end of this post is to give Infrastructure Engineers a call to action, to give Leaders a new perspective on those very Engineers, and for Devs to say, “Finally, someone said it out loud.” Paragraph 2 (the paragraph you’re reading right now) usually contains my experience with Cloud and/or DevOps, but you can always look me up, or I guess you can just start here. Comments…
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The VMware Cloud Professional Multi-cloud (VCP-VMC) Certification: Better Know Your Networking
Read more: The VMware Cloud Professional Multi-cloud (VCP-VMC) Certification: Better Know Your NetworkingI recently passed the still-shiny VMware VCP-VMC Exam. As a VMware employee, I got to take it before its official release, so I got to be a guinea pig, as it were. And just in case you need a little more detail, the VCP-VMC is VMware’s multi-cloud certification, focusing on VMware’s various multi-cloud and cloud-agnostic offerings. And no, I am not going to do a brain dump or word-for-word sample…
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Posts Coming in 2023
Read more: Posts Coming in 2023In no particular order, and with working titles, here are some planned future posts in 2023 (so far!): Hit me up on twitter @RussianLitGuy or email me at bryansullins@thinkingoutcloud.org. I would love to hear from you!
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My Accidental Journey Into Biohacking
Read more: My Accidental Journey Into BiohackingHappy New Year 2023! Here, I am documenting my 4 month “Fitness Journey” that I have so far kept (mostly) to myself. I am not sure what I describe here is “biohacking“, but you can decide for yourself. It’s a tech blog and I am not opposed to using cool buzzwords to get clicks. Sure. Why not? I mean, it’s my blog and I’ll post what I want . .…
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Happy Holidays 2022!
Read more: Happy Holidays 2022!Here’s a short “I am still here” post letting you know this blog is still a thing. And also, Happy Holidays and what not. I have been sidetracked by a whole new career. Priorities, you know. But I have a goal to get back into the swing of things here at thinkingoutcloud.org. In fact, I have no less than 5 posts in the hopper, but I have been indecisive about…
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Crush or Crash: The Possible Fates of MuskTwitter, Its Distributed Systems, and a Commentary on Freedom of Speech
Read more: Crush or Crash: The Possible Fates of MuskTwitter, Its Distributed Systems, and a Commentary on Freedom of SpeechI launched this site just north of two and a half years ago. And in that time, I have only posted about Current Events once. But here I am, posting about Elon Musk and Twitter. And trust me, I do my best to stay out of the swirling shitstorm that is Current Events Commentary in 2022. This is a tech blog, after all. But I am doing it anyway. Why?…
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Guidelines For Digital Transformation Part 2: Transform and Roll Out
Read more: Guidelines For Digital Transformation Part 2: Transform and Roll OutPart 1 was about changing your company’s culture, and therefore setting the stage for your next steps. Here I will list off what kinds of projects qualify as Digital Transformation. My disclaimer here is that this post is by no means meant to be a deep dive, but the guidelines listed here will definitely be a good start on your path to Digital Transformation. But First, An Anecdote . .…
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SE Journey Podcast Appearance
Read more: SE Journey Podcast AppearanceI joined the great Zane Allen and Chris Sprague on their SE Journey Podcast as a guest. I met Zane through Seattle VMUG and in this episode we take a look at how things are for me as a newly minted SE at VMware after the first 3 months. If you are looking to be an SE, lots of great advice from these two seasoned professionals and from me, such…
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Guidelines For Digital Transformation Part 1: It’s the Culture, Stupid
Read more: Guidelines For Digital Transformation Part 1: It’s the Culture, StupidI work in what we call the “Commercial” Market, which has an amorphous and liberal definition of around 500-1500 employees thereabouts . . . ish . . . give or take? There may also be a certain dollar amount along with that, but that too, is amorphous, as it were. Let’s just say that these companies don’t qualify as something one might consider an “Enterprise-sized” company. Many of these companies,…
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Making the Transition to Sales Engineer Part 2: What to Expect in Your First Two Months
Read more: Making the Transition to Sales Engineer Part 2: What to Expect in Your First Two MonthsWelcome to Part 2 of my 2-part series, Making the Transition to Sales Engineer. In Part 1, I described how I became an SE. Here, now that I am just north of 2 months in, I talk about my experiences so far and what I’ve learned. A Brief Aside: I am Very Well Aware of Where I Am I anticipate that there will be some more seasoned SE’s who may…
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On Building Your Brand
Read more: On Building Your BrandI am going to come out swinging on this one because I can sense your consternation already: The tragic irony about Building Your Brand is that if you don’t consciously Build Your Brand, it will be built for you by others without your control. . . . I know, right? And yes, I realize I am making some assumptions there. For example, can we safely assume that “Building Your Brand”…
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Making the Transition to Sales Engineer Part 1: Started From the Bottom Now We’re Here
Read more: Making the Transition to Sales Engineer Part 1: Started From the Bottom Now We’re HereIt’s official I guess. I am posting again after a self imposed, “I have no idea what to do with my blog now,” hiatus, since as you all may well know, I made a career change. In the interest of full transparency, I still have no idea what to do with my blog now, but I also feel compelled to blog again. So, for the time being, I am taking…
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Corporate IT Acquisitions Part 2: The (Sort Of) Touchy-Feely Version
Read more: Corporate IT Acquisitions Part 2: The (Sort Of) Touchy-Feely VersionI did not plan on making a Part 2 to Corporate IT Acquisitions: A Survival Guide, but upon a sober re-reading, I think the post came across as rather curmudgeonly and dick-ish. Don’t get me wrong, I stand behind the post. I am not making a retraction here. But, let’s face it, I am sometimes curmudgeonly, and I am sometimes dick-ish. But I can do touchy-feely. Let’s take some of…
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Corporate IT Acquisitions: A Survival Guide
Read more: Corporate IT Acquisitions: A Survival GuideAs a freshly-minted VMware employee who has been there just over a month, you might be wondering what my take is on the Broadcom/VMware acquisition. Well, first of all, I can’t talk about what’s happening internally, because that would like, get me fired and stuff. Also, I am not in the business of making predictions about what’s going to happen with it. I am sure you can read many of…
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Some Developments . . .
Read more: Some Developments . . .The Mothership called, and I was compelled to answer: I start my new job at VMware as a Senior Solution Engineer for the PNW Region on May 2. And for the first time in my life I am taking a week off in between jobs. That means technically, I am unemployed for the next week or so at the time of this writing. I know this may come as a…
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Securing Your vSphere Environment from Ransomware Part 3 of 3: Rubber Meets Road
Read more: Securing Your vSphere Environment from Ransomware Part 3 of 3: Rubber Meets RoadI am hoping that you have recovered from the scare I gave you in Part 1, and I hope that I gave you some food for thought in Part 2 with some action items that will further lock down your vSphere/ESXi environment. Here, we continue with the rest of VMware’s recommendations for decreasing the risk that a ransomware attack will be successful on your organization, dear reader. I will also…
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AWS Cloud Practitioner Exam: The Experience
Read more: AWS Cloud Practitioner Exam: The ExperienceWho has two thumbs and passed the AWS Cloud Practioner Exam? It was a nerve-racking experience for quite a few reasons: It has been over a decade since I have taken any IT exams. I am an all-around anxious person, hence the binge-drinking.1 I admittedly do not have a lot of hands-on experience with AWS. I am a busy dude. I have a podcast (shameless plug), this blog (DOY!), my…
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vSphere Cluster Service: My Crisis of Confidence
Read more: vSphere Cluster Service: My Crisis of ConfidenceWhen I was a wee VMware Engineer (let’s say it was the year . . . I don’t know . . . 2011), I first learned about the clustering features built into vSphere (specifically, HA and DRS). I developed a certain psychology and approach about those clustering technologies that was validated by more seasoned VMware Engineers, some of whom actually worked at VMware. That psychology and approach was as follows:…
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Securing Your vSphere Environment from Ransomware Part 2: Rubber Meets Road
Read more: Securing Your vSphere Environment from Ransomware Part 2: Rubber Meets RoadIn Part 1, I may have scared the crap out of you introduced protecting your vSphere environment from Ransomware attacks using some resources from VMware. But, that was an iceberg-level introduction to the concept. Here, we are going to talk about what you can actually do to protect your vSphere environment. My focus here is on securing the ESXi Host specifically and other vSphere apps (vCenter, etc.). I say this…
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Securing Your vSphere Environment from Ransomware Part 1: It’s Worse Than You Think
Read more: Securing Your vSphere Environment from Ransomware Part 1: It’s Worse Than You ThinkTL;DR – Jump down to the Action Items: Where to Start section. I am averse to clickbait titles but I am pulling out all the stops with this one. I am also usually averse to fear mongering, but this topic warrants it. My disclaimer here is that this post is not intended to include every possible ransomware scenario or countermeasure. Protecting your organization from Ransomware is a team effort, so…
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Happy Holidays . . . and . . . Why You Should Never Be a Fanboi/gurl of Anything Ever
Read more: Happy Holidays . . . and . . . Why You Should Never Be a Fanboi/gurl of Anything EverThis is the last post before Christmas, so Happy Holidays! Quick: Name something that you believe is utterly and completely without flaw. It’s a thing that is totally perfect, no need to argue. Could be anything. A movie. A song. An album. A TV Show. Anything. And yes, this is still a tech blog (I’ll get to the tech part, I promise). I can name a few. The Christmas movie…
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Building Kubernetes-enabled Tower/AWX Execution Environments Using AWX-EE and ansible-builder
Read more: Building Kubernetes-enabled Tower/AWX Execution Environments Using AWX-EE and ansible-builderDisclaimer: this post is a bit more on the intermediate/advanced side, but you can always email me if you need help at bryansullins@thinkingoutcloud.org. The title for this post was originally Building Tower/AWX Execution Environments Using AWX-EE and ansible-builder without the K-word. But I know how to use Key Words to my advantage to get traffic to my site. HECK YES I DO! Note to self: I should just title my…
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A Rant About Bad Blogging and A (Former) Paper Tiger’s Advice on Passing IT Exams
Read more: A Rant About Bad Blogging and A (Former) Paper Tiger’s Advice on Passing IT ExamsTL;DR If you’re just looking for the “Studying Exams” part, skip down to, “And Now, the Exam Studying Part”. The Rant Part, If You’ll Excuse the Irony and the Aside The irony of this rant on bad blogging is that having a rant during an informative post that has a real topic, which, in this case, is studying for IT exams, is itself . . . bad blogging. But screw…
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Your Friendly TOC Blogger Gets Real: Did You Spot My Master Plan?
Read more: Your Friendly TOC Blogger Gets Real: Did You Spot My Master Plan?Have an open mind on this one . . . this post may not be what it seems. It is Halloween weekend after all . . . You may have noticed that VMworld 2021 came and went and I said nothing. I know you are probably shaking your fist in disgust and anger at me for that transgression, and for that I do apologize. It’s not that VMware has fallen…
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I’m a Contributor Now: What I Learned from My First Public GitHub Pull Request (and What You Can Do With It)
Read more: I’m a Contributor Now: What I Learned from My First Public GitHub Pull Request (and What You Can Do With It)I’ve made it. I can now say I have done a PR on github on someone else’s repo, which makes me a bona fide contributor. I know some of you “dev types” are reading this with furrowed brow and arms folded hurumphing about how you, “did 4 PRs this morning while crapping a lightning bolt.” If you’ve been reading this blog long enough, you know that your lack of support…
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Why VMware Engineers Tell You to Right-size Your VMs: Becau$e Co-$top Will Co$t You Money
Read more: Why VMware Engineers Tell You to Right-size Your VMs: Becau$e Co-$top Will Co$t You MoneyA Scenario: Ever wonder why we VMware Engineers always try to explain to you why, “you don’t need that many vCPUS”? But then you insist that you do need them because, “that’s what the vendor told you and stuff. . . or . . . whatever.” And then we’re all, “Right, but we have this vROPs report that you have direct access to but never use says you don’t need…
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A Plethora of Questions: The Value of Reverse Engineering (and a Primer)
Read more: A Plethora of Questions: The Value of Reverse Engineering (and a Primer)This post has everything: Borg Assimilation Cubes, no less than 2 Alec Baldwin movie references, and one Stefon reference. Read on! . . . Aaaaaaaand I’m back! Did you miss me? Yes, I took an extended break and I am #SorryNotSorry to my devoted readers. I have been busy with enjoying the nice weather, trying to lose my “COVID 15” (down 6 pounds!), and my side-project comedy podcast. Thought that…
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TOC Update: For the Shareholders!
Read more: TOC Update: For the Shareholders!I will come right out and say it: I am taking a break for two months. I have been going solid since my first post here on March 14, 2020. That’s your TL;DR, but if you want to see what it’s like to own a blog (stats on such), stick around and hang out. Don’t worry – I am not going anywhere; I have a lot more to say, but…
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A Primer on Migrations with Zerto and Inspecting the Zerto REST API
Read more: A Primer on Migrations with Zerto and Inspecting the Zerto REST APITL;DR – If you want to get straight to the API part, skip in down to the section “Zerto Migration Orchestration and REST APIs”. This is the third and final post sponsored by Zerto, and if you are averse to me getting paid for this, who the heck do you think you are? I encourage you to read the first paragraph of Zerto’s Continuous Data Protection for Kubernetes, Part 1:…
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Zerto’s Continuous Data Protection for Kubernetes, Part 2: The Hands-On Part
Read more: Zerto’s Continuous Data Protection for Kubernetes, Part 2: The Hands-On PartTL;DR: If you really want to get my deeper commentary on the value of what Zerto for Kubernetes provides and go a bit beyond the lab, skip down to the section: “The Part Where Everything Comes Together,” although there might be some nuggets along the way! Welcome back. This is Part 2 of a series on Zerto and Kubernetes. In Part 1 we took a look at the features available…
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Containers 101, Part 2: Building a Container with “docker build” and Pushing it To a Docker Repo for Use with Kubernetes
Read more: Containers 101, Part 2: Building a Container with “docker build” and Pushing it To a Docker Repo for Use with KubernetesHow’s that for a searchable title? In your face, SEO consultants! In Part 1, we did some basic tasks with Containers: We installed docker, launched a container, and got into its ssh session. But that was using a container built by someone else, in that case the VMware PowerCLI image. Here, we are kicking it up a notch by customizing a docker image with docker build, then we’ll upload it…
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TOC May 2021 Update
Read more: TOC May 2021 UpdateHey everyone. Thanks for reading. I have at least two posts in the hopper but I have had some personal/family issues come up. Be on the lookout for more Container posts, my Zerto posts, and others on Ansible Colletions. This blog is still a thing, so keep me in your feeds: more good stuff coming! Hit me up on twitter @RussianLitGuy or email me at bryansullins@thinkingoutcloud.org. I would love to hear from you.
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Zerto’s Continuous Data Protection for Kubernetes, Part 1: What is It?
Read more: Zerto’s Continuous Data Protection for Kubernetes, Part 1: What is It?In the interest of full disclosure, TOC-ers, I am getting paid for this blog post. In fact, this is 1 of 3 posts sponsored by the Disaster Recovery company Zerto. And, yes, I know what you’re thinking: I’ve sold out. That is a nice try, but “selling out” is when someone makes an endorsement without actually using or vouching for the product, and you should be aware that my current…
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Ansible Tips and Tricks: –list-hosts and/or Forcing People to Use –limit
Read more: Ansible Tips and Tricks: –list-hosts and/or Forcing People to Use –limitAs much as I would like to think that I am careful when running Ansible playbooks, I am still a flawed human being, despite my best efforts. And as I am sure you can imagine or have experienced, some playbooks can be dangerous if run across the wrong hosts, or too many hosts: Tasks that reboot machines or tasks that reconfigure hosts that don’t fit a certain criteria come to…
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Containers 101, Part 1: Containers Defined and How to Run Them
Read more: Containers 101, Part 1: Containers Defined and How to Run ThemI have published no less than two Kubernetes Series posts and not once did I dive into Containers. I linked to the great work of Nigel Poulton, but I’ve never talked about it myself. BAD BLOGGER! So here, I am going to: Dive somewhat into describing what containers are. Show you the basics of running a container. In Part 2, we’ll dive deeper into using Docker files to build containers…
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My “Side Project” “Comedy” Podcast – Bicoastal Boozecast
Read more: My “Side Project” “Comedy” Podcast – Bicoastal BoozecastHey all. Bryan here. I hope you are enjoying my most recent post on Kubernetes and installing Tanzu Kubernetes Grid. It was fun for me to get that out there. Also, we’ve reached a TOC milestone: You are reading the 50th post here at TOC! YEAH! This blog is still a thing, I promise; just been pre-occupied with life stuff. I have some more Ansible, Jenkins, and VMware stuff I…
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Late-to-the-Table Kubernetes Part 4: Yet Another Tutorial on Installing Tanzu Kubernetes Grid
Read more: Late-to-the-Table Kubernetes Part 4: Yet Another Tutorial on Installing Tanzu Kubernetes GridSo here we are. Part 4. Parts 1-3 go through a definition of what Kubernetes really is and what resources you can use to learn K8s. I recommend you at least look at Part 3 where I list some requisite knowledge one should have before installing Kubernetes. It will definitely help you for this post. The Usual Disclaimer Part The disclaimer I have here is that I will be installing…
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Late-to-the-Table Kubernetes Part 3: Yet Another Explanation of Kubernetes
Read more: Late-to-the-Table Kubernetes Part 3: Yet Another Explanation of KubernetesFor Whom The Post Tolls, The Post Tolls for Thee1 In Part 1, I made a reference to Kubernetes being a software defined, “datacenter in a box”. I stand by that statement. Here we are going to delve further into that idea. In Part 2, we talked about resources for studying Kubernetes and what worked for me. Here we are looking to further grasp the basic concept of Kubernetes. Therefore,…
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Me = vExpert 2021
Read more: Me = vExpert 2021I am honored to be a first-time vExpert here in the year 2021. I have a lot of people to thank for this. Out of respect for their privacy I will just say, “you know who you are”. Now to the “keeping of it” part, I plan on continuing my “sharing of all the things” with talks and podcast appearances. Pending approval I will be doing a VMUG talk on…
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The Fallacy of “Just Getting it Done”: Economics and the Use of Automation
Read more: The Fallacy of “Just Getting it Done”: Economics and the Use of AutomationTL;DR Work smarter not harder by calculating opportunity costs. Yeah I know. Another opinion post. I know you want more technical posts. And for the record, I have at least one technical post coming up on Tanzu Kubernetes Grid. I have another on Ansible coming up. So, I promise I will get back to some technical posts in the very near future. But I keep coming up with other ideas…
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IT Reality Podcast – Season 2 Episode 4 Appearance
Read more: IT Reality Podcast – Season 2 Episode 4 AppearanceForgive me for the not-so-creative title on this one, but the good people over at IT Reality Podcast (ITR for short) were gracious enough to put up with my binge drinking1 presence for their 51st Episode. So head on over and enjoy! Topics are wide and varied. We talk about the Six Year Rule, The Dunning Kruger Effect, and I got to tell one of my favorite stories about drunk-updating…
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The Six Year Rule: Keeping Your Skills Relevant in a Sea of Technology
Read more: The Six Year Rule: Keeping Your Skills Relevant in a Sea of TechnologyI am not sure I have ever gone into detail about my career history so far here on TOC. I am more than just a binge drinking1 IT Engineer with a penchant for Russian literature and existential angst. I have a history you know. In this post I am going to talk about methods for choosing what technology to learn next. I am not a career counselor, but I will…
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