Bits, Bytes, & Radio Waves

A quiet journey through discovery and understanding.

  • Securing Microsoft SQL Server with Transport Layer Security (TLS) Certificates

    Certificate Requirements If using a single server, the fully qualified domain name is only needed for the Common Name (CN) attribute. If using Always On High Availability, the fully qualified domain name of the individual SQL server needs to be in the CN attribute and the Availability Group Listener fully qualified domain name needs to…

  • VMware Agents Install Script

    Order of Agent Install VMware Tools VMware Horizon Agent VMware Dynamic Environment Manager (DEM) Agent (Optional) VMware App Volumes Agent # https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2118048 # https://powershellexplained.com/2016-10-21-powershell-installing-msi-files/ # # Install VMware Horizon Agent # Start-Process C:\ImageBuild\agents\VMware-Horizon-Agent-x86_64-7.13.0-16975066.exe -Wait -ArgumentList ‘/s /v”/qn VDM_VC_MANAGED_AGENT=1 ADDLOCAL=BlastUDP,ClientDriveRedirection,Core,FLASHMMR,HelpDesk,NGVC,PerfTracker,RDP,RTAV,SmartCard,ThinPrint,TSMMR,V4V,VmVideo,VMWMediaProviderProxy,VmwVaudio,VmwVidd VDM_FIPS_ENABLED=1 REBOOT=ReallySuppress /l*v C:\ImageBuild\logs\HorizonAgent-Install.log”‘ # # Install VMware Dynamic Environment Manager (DEM) Agent # Start-Process msiexec.exe…

  • Using PowerCLI in Smart Card Based Environment

    ref: https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/67789 Problem You work in a hardened environment and you don’t have an administrative username and password because you only have smart cards or tokens. Resolution According to VMware, this is expected behavior. Uh, what? Workaround According to VMware, “Use Windows SSPI to pass through the Windows logged session Smart Card credentials to PowerCLI…

Notes from practice

I use this site to document systems, configurations, and lessons learned as I work through real problems—both professionally and through personal experimentation. The goal is clarity: understand how something works, explain why it behaves the way it does, and make it reliable and repeatable.

These notes are written primarily for myself, but shared openly in case they help someone else avoid a dead end or reduce frustration. If you’d like to learn more, visit the About page.

If you have questions or comments, you’re always welcome to contact me.

Aaron Rombaut

Technologist & Writer