In the last post I proved the flow locally: Ansible talks to vCenter, clones from a template, and the VM comes up with our settings. That was the “manual gear.” Now I want the “automatic gear”—a GitLab pipeline that runs the same steps for me, consistently, from any commit. My goals are simple: keep secrets […]
VMware vSphere – Automating VM Deployment with Ansible and GitLab CI/CD – Part 3 Read Post »
In this post we move from lab setup to hands-on automation. The goal is to provision virtual machines on vSphere automatically by combining Ansible playbooks with a GitLab CI/CD pipeline. Everything lives as code in a Git repository: VM definitions, playbooks, and the pipeline that runs them. With a single commit, GitLab triggers Ansible, which
VMware vSphere – Automating VM Deployment with Ansible and GitLab CI/CD – Part 2 Read Post »
A few months ago, when I first came across a project where Ansible and GitLab CI/CD were used to automate VM deployments in VMware vCenter, I wasn’t directly responsible for writing the playbooks. My role was more on the VMware side — managing vCenter, handling ESXi administration, and preparing the YAML host files that Ansible
VMware vSphere – Automating VM Deployment with Ansible and GitLab CI/CD – Part 1 Read Post »
When managing virtual machines in VMware vSphere, it’s common to run out of disk space over time. Fortunately, expanding a virtual disk is straightforward, but it involves both changes in vSphere and inside the guest operating system. In this guide, I’ll walk you through the steps to increase the disk size of an Ubuntu Linux
How to Increase Disk Size of an Ubuntu Linux VM in vSphere Read Post »
This article is part of the 5-part series: “ESXi Packet Loss Troubleshooting with iPerf3 and pktcap-uw” Part 1: Baseline Testing and Setup Part 2: Capturing UDP Traffic Under Different CPU Loads Part 3: Analyzing Packet Loss with Wireshark Part 4: UDP Loss from Link Flapping and Network Instability Part 5: Inter-VLAN UDP Loss Caused by
ESXi Packet Loss Troubleshooting with iPerf3 & pktcap-uw – Part 5 Read Post »
This article is part of the 5-part series: “ESXi Packet Loss Troubleshooting with iPerf3 and pktcap-uw” Part 1: Baseline Testing and Setup Part 2: Capturing UDP Traffic Under Different CPU Loads Part 3: Analyzing Packet Loss with Wireshark Part 4: UDP Loss from Link Flapping and Network Instability ← You are here Part 5: Inter-VLAN
ESXi Packet Loss Troubleshooting with iPerf3 & pktcap-uw – Part 4 Read Post »
This article is part of the 5-part series: “ESXi Packet Loss Troubleshooting with iPerf3 and pktcap-uw” Part 1: Baseline Testing and Setup Part 2: Capturing UDP Traffic Under Different CPU Loads Part 3: Analyzing Packet Loss with Wireshark ← You are here Part 4: UDP Loss from Link Flapping and Network Instability Part 5: Inter-VLAN
ESXi Packet Loss Troubleshooting with iPerf3 & pktcap-uw – Part 3 Read Post »
This article is part of the 5-part series: “ESXi Packet Loss Troubleshooting with iPerf3 and pktcap-uw” Part 1: Baseline Testing and Setup Part 2: Capturing UDP Traffic Under Different CPU Loads ← You are here Part 3: Analyzing Packet Loss with Wireshark Part 4: UDP Loss from Link Flapping and Network Instability Part 5: Inter-VLAN
ESXi Packet Loss Troubleshooting with iPerf3 & pktcap-uw – Part 2 Read Post »
This article is part of the 5-part series: “ESXi Packet Loss Troubleshooting with iPerf3 and pktcap-uw” Part 1: Baseline Testing and Setup ← You are here Part 2: Capturing UDP Traffic Under Different CPU Loads Part 3: Analyzing Packet Loss with Wireshark Part 4: UDP Loss from Link Flapping and Network Instability Part 5: Inter-VLAN
ESXi Packet Loss Troubleshooting with iPerf3 & pktcap-uw – Part 1 Read Post »
Let’s be honest — keeping a fleet of Ubuntu servers updated isn’t the most glamorous job, especially when they’re tucked away behind firewalls with no internet access. But what if we could turn this dusty chore into a clean, elegant, and even satisfying little automation adventure? That’s exactly what we did. This was actually my
Secure and Centralized Ubuntu Patching with Ansible Read Post »