We have an amazing group of teams forming for the VMworld Hackathon in Las Vegas later this month.
We checked in with a few of the team leaders to see what nut they’re trying to crack. Read their answers below and register to participate.
Bill Roth (Wavefront)
1) In a nutshell, what problem/idea do you hope to tackle with your team?
Mostly, I’m interested in showing off Wavefront and starting a discussion on what is possible. I find when you explain what Wavefront is, people get all sorts of creative ideas. Absent that, I’ll likely do 1 of two things. 1) Enhance my Nest data example, or 2) build a small performance agent for android it would be possible to monitor android phones.
2) Are you building on any previous efforts? If yes, please share any link/resource.
See above. I could be building on the Nest data example.
3) Provided you’re still looking to add more team members, what are you looking for?
We have PLENTY of room. I’m looking for folks who have crazy ideas and want to implement them on Wavefront.
4) Anything else you’d like to share?
Yes. Wavefront is incredible flexible, and has a fully document API. It also allows collection from over 80 different integrations (see the list here). The proxy that is used is open source, so the project could look at forking the proxy and adding to it.
JJ Asghar (Ohai Chefs!)
1) In a nutshell, what problem/idea do you hope to tackle with your team?
Chef shines at configuration management. If you want to spin up a new IAAS box, by hand, it can take upwards to 60+ mins each. If we write a chef vra-iaas-cookbook (name WIP) with some verification on it, it should only take the time the converge takes. (> 3 mins in most cases)
2) Are you building on any previous efforts? If yes, please share any link/resource.
Nope, starting from scratch, i need to do this for my Dev environments, this seems like a great opportunity to teach the advantages of Chef.
3) Provided you’re still looking to add more team members, what are you looking for?
Absolutely, I’d love to walk or teach more about Chef. This is an excuse for me to time box this project and be there in case people want to learn about Chef. Multiple hackathons I’ve been there just to help general Chef questions, to building integrations for clouds!
4) Anything else you’d like to share?
Join me! Ask questions, and if not, lets hack on the iaas cookbook so the idea of spinning up a vRA 7.0+ IAAS machine is just a chef-client converge!
Justin Sider (SweaterVester)
1) In a nutshell, what problem/idea do you hope to tackle with your team?
1a) Team goal: Implement a way to improve XesterUI by allowing the user to specify a Single Item (vm, Datacenter, Host, etc) and a Single test to send to Vester. And add the appropriate UI controls.
1b) Personal goals: Hopefully learn a new skill, Powershell, PowerCLI, PHP, SQL, HTML etc.
2) Are you building on any previous efforts? If yes, please share any link/resource.
Yes, this idea initially stemmed from last year’s Hackathon, I decided to continue on with where we started that night. https://invoke-automation.blog/2017/03/19/xesterui-a-vester-user-interface/
3) Provided you’re still looking to add more team members, what are you looking for?
Honestly, I am just as happy to teach, as I am to accomplish the tasks. Skills could include Powershell, PowerCLI, PHP, SQL, HTML.
4) Anything else you’d like to share?
No, this event is all about community and camaraderie, It’s all about creating a useful tool and giving back to the community.
Kyle Ruddy (Team #Migrate2VCSA)
1) In a nutshell, what problem/idea do you hope to tackle with your team?
The VCSA Migration tool is an awesome utility that helps bring people over from the Windows vCenter Server to the vCenter Server Appliance. However, there is one area that’s missing: Horizontal Migrations. The problem is that there’s no migration path for people already using the Windows vCenter Server and wishing to stay on that version. (Example: If using a Windows vCenter Server 6.5 instance, the migration tool cannot be used to migrate to a VCSA which is also versioned at 6.5)
2) Are you building on any previous efforts? If yes, please share any link/resource.
There are some scripts which will be made available ahead of time in the following repository: https://github.com/kmruddy/vcenter_migration
3) Provided you’re still looking to add more team members, what are you looking for?
I’m always looking for team members and contributors! I’m looking for anyone. If you can code in PowerShell/PowerCLI, you’re going to be right at home on this team. If you’ve ever done a vCenter server migration, you too will be right at home. If you’re neither of those, the team will make sure you feel at home.
4) Anything else you’d like to share?
At the end of the day/event, the end goal is to make sure all the team members had fun and learned something. I know I’m quite excited to participate in another VMware Code Hackathon, and I hope all those in attendance feel the same way!
Nick Korte (Defenders of the Keystore)
1) In a nutshell, what problem/idea do you hope to tackle with your team?
VM Encryption is a great feature of vSphere 6.5, but you need an external KMS. Not every admin may know how to configure a KMS or want to do it. Imagine how much easier life would be if an admin could just start using VM Encryption to meet compliance regulations without needing to do anything special other than use vCenter and press a button? We’re looking to automate the Hytrust Keycontrol KMS cluster deployment (one node in a public cloud and one on premises), KMS configuration in vCenter, backup the KMS keystore, and provide push-button encryption of virtual machines.
2) Are you building on any previous efforts? If yes, please share any link/resource.
This began with a project at work which turned into a blog post. Then I heard about the hackathon and thought maybe it could be automated. Then some awesome people joined my team.
3) Provided you’re still looking to add more team members, what are you looking for?
Additional nerds are welcome to join us.
If encryption and KMS are areas you would like to learn more about… If you’re a public cloud master / novice… Whether you can / can’t code… Join us for a great learning experience.
4) Anything else you’d like to share?
We’re going to have fun with it and let our creativity guide what we do. I’m certainly not an expert coder and am excited to learn from my team members!
Cody de Arkland (The Humble Brackets)
1) In a nutshell, what problem/idea do you hope to tackle with your team?
Looking to expose individuals to leveraging Voice commands to perform actions on their environments. This could be provisioning systems, interacting with NSX, pulling reporting, etc. Essentially creating a vocal interfaces to VMware products.
2) Are you building on any previous efforts? If yes, please share any link/resource.
Building on the previous efforts that i’ve discussed on my blog, https://www.thehumblelab.com. William Lam has also done some work on https://www.virtuallyghetto.com
3) Provided you’re still looking to add more team members, what are you looking for?
While the team shows full on the list, I’d really love to score someone who’s powerful with Docker or vSphere Integrated Containers!
4) Anything else you’d like to share?
The goal here is to teach, learn, and have a blast. Winning is irrelevant as long as we all have a good time and a few of us walk away with a few new skills in our pockets!
Brian Bunke (See My Vest)
1) In a nutshell, what problem/idea do you hope to tackle with your team?
Everyone has encountered VMs/hosts/etc. with inconsistent configurations. We’ll write some new tests to enforce values you personally care about, and remediate for the 6.5 Security Config Guide along the way.
2) Are you building on any previous efforts? If yes, please share any link/resource.
Vester is a community-driven, open source project: https://github.com/WahlNetwork/Vester
3) Provided you’re still looking to add more team members, what are you looking for?
If #1 sounds interesting, you’re welcome — no experience necessary. We have plenty of members familiar with the code base, and we’re happy to walk you through using and extending Vester.
4) Anything else you’d like to share?
If you’re on the fence about participating, just do it! The worst that’ll happen is meeting some new people.
Luc Dekens (Need for Speed)
1) In a nutshell, what problem/idea do you hope to tackle with your team?
“Coding is fun!” and “Everyone can code”.
As a byproduct we will try make vCheck run faster, and fix some issues.
2) Are you building on any previous efforts? If yes, please share any link/resource.
Building on the community maintained vCheck script. What better way to demonstrate the force of Community around PowerCLI
3) Provided you’re still looking to add more team members, what are you looking for?
All level (entry/intermediate/advanced) of PowerShell/PowerCLI coders.
And people with a logical mind and good ideas.
4) Anything else you’d like to share?
Hackathon = Coding + Fun + Community
Jase McCarty (SABUtage)
1) In a nutshell, what problem/idea do you hope to tackle with your team?
Stretched Clusters are a bit different than normal solutions and have some important design and operational considerations. Our intention is to put together something that will streamline one or more aspects of configuring a vSAN Stretched Cluster.
2) Are you building on any previous efforts? If yes, please share any link/resource.
There are quite a few scripts available today to accomplish vSAN configuration, including Stretched Clusters and specific settings associated with Stretched Clusters.
One example is using PowerCLI 6.5.1 and the new DRS cmdlets. https://code.vmware.com/samples/2126
Another is setting up vSAN Stretched Clusters itself: https://code.vmware.com/samples/1366
3) Provided you’re still looking to add more team members, what are you looking for?
Drive, initiative, and a those looking to learn
4) Anything else you’d like to share?
We’re looking forward to a great time. If you are interested, please join. Plenty of room.
