With the general sessions behind me, today would be all about breakout sessions and networking. My first session was at the VMware {CODE} alcove. Knowing that there are issues being able to see the screen from the back, I got in line early to get a front row seat. The session did not disappoint. David Stamen has written a comprehensive suite of Powershell scripts to automate the management of VCSA patches, including querying for available patches, downloading, staging and deploying. Tasks can be run on multiple vCenters simultaneously, so vast swaths of vCenters can be updated simultaneously with a couple of commands.

In the second session, Kyle Ruddy and JJ Asghar demonstrated how to automate template builds and modifications using Packer, Jenkins, Ansible and InSpec. This was another one of those whirlwind sessions that covers a lot of ground in a very short time. They have made the scripts they use available, but realistically, it was more of a proof of concept demo than something one could take home and immediately implement. However, they do provide the scripts they use, and some blog searching could probably help cobble together such a setup.

The third session covered the mechanics of SSL certificates in vSphere, including best practices regarding maintaining certificates. Finally, a tech preview hinted at some utilities to make certificate management easier in a future release. Finally, a great session about VMware Tools: what they are, what they consist of and how to manage updates and maintenance. Again, the tech preview hinted at future technologies to make updating and using VMware Tools easier.

The evening ended with beer and Billy Idol at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. What could be better?