Brock Peterson

Principal VCF Architect | Operations and Automation | Broadcom | vExpert 2019-2026

[Brock Peterson @bpatvmware]

New Blog: VCF Operations Dashboard Sharing and Folders!

https://t.co/qJryYwjU9x

[Dale Hassinger @dalehassinger]

𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗕𝗹𝗼𝗴 𝗣𝗼𝘀𝘁. 𝗠𝘆 𝗩𝗠𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗹𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗛𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗮𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗻 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗸𝗲𝗲𝗽𝘀 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗴. 🚀

𝘃𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗢𝗯𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 brings together my team's hackathon results: last year's PowerShell MCP server and this year's RVTools-style DBH Insights. I kept building after Explore.

It has custom vSphere dashboards, a REST API for VCF Operations Management Pack Builder, and a local AI chat that answers only from the sources you pick. It's open source and works at dark sites.

𝗕𝗹𝗼𝗴 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗸:
https://t.co/vp5bo1AOck

#vExpert #vCommunity #Hackathon #VCF #AI #vmware

[Brock Peterson @bpatvmware]

New Blog: VCF Operations Top Alerts Widget!

https://t.co/DbyZw9OAvL

[Dale Hassinger @dalehassinger]

🚀 From a 𝗩𝗠𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗹𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗛𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗮𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗻 2026 project to something 𝗯𝗶𝗴𝗴𝗲𝗿…

At the VMware Explore Hackathon in Las Vegas, my team built an RVTools-style, cross-platform vCenter inventory application. The response at Explore was great, so after the event we continued developing it and released the project on GitHub for anyone to download and try.

Now I’ve taken it another step.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗿𝘂𝗻𝘀 𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗿, 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘁 𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗿𝘂𝗻 𝗼𝗻 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝘂𝘅, 𝗪𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗼𝘄𝘀, 𝗼𝗿 𝗺𝗮𝗰𝗢𝗦.

I’ve also started adding capabilities beyond a traditional RVTools-style inventory, including:
🔹 Scheduled inventory collections built-in
🔹 Automatic retention of the most recent 5–7 inventory runs
🔹 Additional views to surface useful vCenter information
🔹 Cross-platform container deployment

But before I keep adding features, I’d really like some input from the VMware community.

How are you using RVTools today?

Are you using it for:
👉 Health checks?
👉 Environment documentation?
👉 Capacity planning?
👉 Upgrade planning?
👉 Comparing inventory over time?
👉 Customer assessments?
👉 Something completely different?

And the bigger question:

What do you wish RVTools did that it doesn't do today?

Drop your ideas in the comments — even if it's something small. I'm looking for "Real-World" use cases that can help determine where we take this project next.

If there's enough interest, I'll share more about the new containerized version and how to try it.

I’ve included a few screenshots to show what we’ve built so far.

#VMware #VCF #RVTools #vExpert #Automation #HomeLab #Containers

[Brock Peterson @bpatvmware]

New Blog: VCF Operations Upgrader!

https://t.co/rYR6LNrPzq

[Brock Peterson @bpatvmware]

New Blog: Applying VCF 9.1.1 Express Patch 2 to your VCF Management Domain!

https://t.co/LCxdDxU1OI

[Brock Peterson @bpatvmware]

Super Metrics Blog series from @ThomasKopton!

Anatomy of a Formula: https://t.co/jTB5IXC4dO
Looping Functions & Depth: https://t.co/L9i4bKExTo
Filtering & Logic: https://t.co/SpdJLbQ4vK
Hero Patterns: https://t.co/OjZKONZlby
Putting Super Metrics to Work: https://t.co/6e0q9muF5C

[Brock Peterson @bpatvmware]

New Blog: Applying VCF 9.1 Express Patch 2 to your VCF Management Services!

https://t.co/pahaTeR7bP

[Dale Hassinger @dalehassinger]

𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗛𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗟𝗮𝗯 𝗗𝗮𝘀𝗵𝗯𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱! 🚀

I’ve always wanted a 𝗩𝗖𝗙 𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗗𝗮𝘀𝗵𝗯𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱 that shows which network switch ports connect to each host in my lab. 🥼

Using my 𝗠𝗖𝗣 𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗲𝗿 in 𝗖𝗹𝗮𝘂𝗱𝗲, I connected to my network switch and vCenter to map the host-to-switch port connections. 𝗖𝗹𝗮𝘂𝗱𝗲 then created an HTML report that I could display in VCF Operations using the Text Display Widget. 📊

Sharing with the vCommunity to spark ideas for your own lab. 𝗔𝗜 is making projects like this easier to bring to life! 👍

𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝘁𝗼 𝗗𝗮𝘀𝗵𝗯𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱:
https://t.co/lQXslvJoaf

#vExpert #VMware #VCF #HomeLab #vCommunity #AI #MCP

[Brock Peterson @bpatvmware]

New Blog: Dynamic Fields in VCF Automation Blueprints!

https://t.co/lh4lmGN0S2

[Brock Peterson @bpatvmware]

New Blog: VCF Operations Metric Picker!

https://t.co/sjCYdZ4IXn

[Brock Peterson @bpatvmware]

New Blog: VCF Operations 9.1.1 Log Visibility Only!

https://t.co/EIiFMy70Ei

[Virtually Speaking Podcast @virtspeaking]

Backups alone aren’t enough. This week Belu de de Arbelaiz discusses AI-powered threats and what it takes to detect, contain, and recover safely.

https://t.co/5ruU3WCU8v

#CyberResilience #VMwareExplore

[Dale Hassinger @dalehassinger]

𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗕𝗹𝗼𝗴 𝗣𝗼𝘀𝘁: 𝗨𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗼𝗱𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝘆𝗹𝗲𝗿 🚀

LinkedIn doesn't have a bold button. So I built a small, 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝑒 tool that does it. Type your text, click a style, paste.

A few of the 10 styles:
𝐇𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐨 𝐯𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲
𝐻𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑜 𝑣𝐶𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑦
𝗛𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗼 𝘃𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆
𝙃𝙚𝙡𝙡𝙤 𝙫𝘾𝙤𝙢𝙢𝙪𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙮

𝗠𝗮𝗰: a menu bar app, one click away.
𝗪𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗼𝘄𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝘂𝘅: a web version you can bookmark.

The bold text in this post was made with it. 😎

#vExpert #vCommunity #AI #Claude

https://t.co/iQMlvSOYnp

[Brock Peterson @bpatvmware]

New Blog: VCF Operations Log Management 9.1.1 Data Sets!

https://t.co/iPKx2B4e9M

[Dale Hassinger @dalehassinger]

I just published a new 𝗛𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗟𝗮𝗯 𝗛𝗮𝗿𝗱𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲 post covering the 𝗚𝗟𝗶𝗡𝗘𝗧 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘁 𝗞𝗩𝗠.

I have been using these for remote console access to my Home Lab ESX hosts, and they have worked very well with my Starlink and Twingate setup. 🛰️

If you are looking for a simple remote KVM option for your Home Lab, this may be worth a look. 👀

𝗕𝗹𝗼𝗴 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗸: 👈
https://t.co/WpRaK63cwp

#HomeLab #VMware #VCF #ESXi #KVM #Twingate #Starlink

[Brock Peterson @bpatvmware]

New Blog: VCF Logs Harvester Part 2!

https://t.co/6BHpfWPrZy

[Brock Peterson @bpatvmware]

New Blog: VCF Operations for Logs Harvester!

https://t.co/hHRuKEVvQq

[Brock Peterson @bpatvmware]

New Blog: Changing Passwords via VCF Operations Fleet Manager 9.0.2 API!

https://t.co/vZRnmCO5Ms

[Brock Peterson @bpatvmware]

New Blog: VM Datastore Placement using VCF Automation Storage Profiles!

https://t.co/TvtzbmOHIy