Posts

Certificate Auto Renewal VMware Cloud Foundation 9

Certificate management is a critical aspect of maintaining IT infrastructure. Traditionally, it can be a time-consuming process involving multiple requests, team handoffs, and access to different endpoints and procedures. In VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9, a new feature makes this job much easier: automatic certificate renewal. This enhancement can significantly reduce the time and effort required to manage certificate lifecycles. Here is the official techdocs article on the configuration and also details the auto renewal period; 60days before expiry.

Monday, August 25, 2025 | 2 minutes Read

Preparing Aria Suite Lifecycle Manager for VCF 9

With the new announcement of VCF 9, I like many others, was ready and eager to upgrade my lab. As part of this there is a requirement to apply a patch to Aria Suite Lifecycle Manager to enable you to upgrade VCF Operations from 8.18 to 9.0 and install the new VCF Operations Fleet Management appliance. I thought I would share this process with you. Here are the Release Notes. Firstly, download the patch from the Broadcom Support Portal here.

Thursday, June 19, 2025 | 2 minutes Read

Unable to Select Newer VCF Component Versions After Download Token Changes and Upgrading VCF 4.x to 5.x

Recently, there was a change to how SDDC Manager is configured to download bundles. This was previously done via the Depot Settings section in the SDDC Manager UI, but is now managed via a customer specific download token and a configuration file change. Getting the token is covered already via this KB390098. The article covers off how to get the token but also offers links to a manual and scripted approach for making the configuration file changes.

Tuesday, May 27, 2025 | 2 minutes Read

VCF Administrator VCP Exam Study Group

Earlier this year I participated in a Community lead VCF Administrator VCP Exam study group alongside fellow vExperts James T, Franky B & Gareth E. We did a total of 6 sessions covering the topics of the exam blueprint with a focus towards a more show an tell approach to various administrative tasks, as well as general tours of the VCF platform, for anyone starting at the beginning of their VCF administrator journey.

Thursday, May 22, 2025 | 1 minute Read

vSAN HCL DB Out of Date - How to Update via SDDC Manager

During some recent upgrade work in my home lab I came faced with the following error when running the Upgrade PreCheck. This could be for a number of reasons but being that I power my lab off everyday, its likely just become out of date as a result. After a bit of digging around, I needed to confirm the date of the current HCL file on the SDDC manager DB, was indeed out of date. There is a way of doing this via the appliance CLI and detailed here, but after some further digging I found an API you can call to get the same info and time/date stamp of the remote data file.

VCF
HomeLab

Thursday, March 13, 2025 | 2 minutes Read

Rotating Aria Suite Local Account Passwords Using API’s & PowerShell

Password management is a critical aspect of maintaining a secure and efficient IT infrastructure. The Aria Suite is no exception and password rotation is necessary as part of addressing security policies & compliance requirements. VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle Manager simplifies this process by providing a centralized endpoint to manage your suite’s configurations and settings both in the UI or via API’s. In this blog post, we’ll take a look at how we can reset passwords for the various components of the Aria Suite, all through the Lifecycle Manager, using the API’s via PowerShell.

Friday, December 20, 2024 | 7 minutes Read

Importing Aria Products into Aria Suite Lifecycle Manager

I recently began exploring the process for bringing standalone Aria products, such as Aria Operations or Aria Operations for Logs, into Aria Suite Lifecycle Manager. I knew there was an import option but not something I had ever actually used, so decided to try it out to see if it was as simple as I thought, it was! One thing that is worth checking before you start this process is that the root accounts aren’t expired or locked out and that you have the passwords stored as passwords in the Aria Suite Lifecycle Manager Locker, as you will need to reference these in the import wizard.

VCF
Aria

Wednesday, December 18, 2024 | 1 minute Read

New Year, New Certifications

December is normally a quieter time at work with customers change freezes kicking in and I like to use this time to get in the training I don’t find time to do the rest of the year. We are extremely lucky at work and are allowed to take some exams as well and I use this time to either try to get some new ones or refresh those I might already have.

Certification

Thursday, January 11, 2024 | 5 minutes Read

Visualising Aria Operations for Logs Data in Aria Operations

Its been a weird couple of years since I joined VMware. I have taken a step back from hands on, but with working with customers from such a diverse background I have had access to issues that have never presented themselves before. Presenting and blogging has always been something that was on my list of things to do but I always struggled to think of something to write or talk about that others might find interesting. It was not until I joined VMware and was able to use all that past experience with my customers that I realised I did have things that might be useful.

Thursday, December 21, 2023 | 2 minutes Read

Upgrading VMTools with PowerCLI

I recently got asked if it is possible to upgrade the VMTools on a VM at the VM level and target a group of them, but not at a host or cluster level. The answer is yes. There are multiple ways to handle VMtools upgrades/patching. Below I will show how it can be done via the UI and also using PowerCLI where you can target an array of VM objects.

Wednesday, December 6, 2023 | 1 minute Read