Windows

Customizing Windows guest instances in VMware environments has traditionally been handled by the VMware Guest Customization Specification (Sysprep-based). While this approach works, it has limitations — especially when you need cloud-agnostic blueprints that work across vCenter, Azure, AWS, and GCP cloud accounts. Enter Cloudbase-Init — the Windows equivalent of Cloud-Init. It provides powerful guest customization capabilities including user creation, password injection, hostname configuration, SSH public keys, and user-data script execution. This guide walks through the full process of installing and configuring Cloudbase-Init on a Windows Server template for use with VCF Automation (formerly VMware Aria Automation / vRealize Automation). ...

If you’re working withAria Automation (formerly vRealize Automation) and want to give users the ability to add extra disks to a Windows VM — and define their drive letter and volume label — you’re in the right place. This guide shows you how to build a flexible and reusable cloud template (blueprint) that handles additional disks dynamically. We’ll cover: YAML blueprint inputs for user-defined disks Cloud-init with PowerShell to configure drives Handling drive letter and label assignment dynamically Ensuring all disks are initialized and formatted properly Step 1: Define Inputs for Additional Disks In your Aria Automation blueprint YAML, start by defining an input array that allows users to specify up to 4 additional disks, including their desired SCSI unit number, disk size, drive letter, and volume label. ...

Windows systems are vulnerable to security threats and need to be regularly patched to protect against these threats. However, managing patches for a large number of Windows systems can be a tedious and time-consuming task. This is where SaltStack comes in to help. SaltStack is a popular open-source configuration management and orchestration tool that can be used to manage Windows systems, including patch management. In this blog, we will discuss how to use SaltStack to patch Windows systems. ...

I would try the restore options first. You can find instructions for the restore menu here If the recovery menu doesn’t work put the Mac mini in DFU mode by following the instructions I have here One the device is in DFU open Apple Configurator 2 (Mac Only sorry Windows folks). Make sure you are at least at version Version 2.13.2 Connect the USB-C cable to the Mac and the Mac mini to the port closest to the ethernet port ...