So, BASH, ESXi, and NSX Walk Into a Bar.....


I recently took some time off and wanted to learn a bit about how I might automate my job duties. One thing that I find myself doing every day is packet capturing network traffic for VMware virtual machines. I do it so often, I have the packet capture command structure memorized despite the fact its around 80 characters long. Even so, why not automate it? For those who want to go strait to the automation, check out my Githup pages:

Packet capture script template:

Generate packet capture commands:

For a little more explanation, here are the resources a person can use to understand the packet capture commands for an ESXi hypervisor:

Page 224 has a heading titled "Capturing and Tracing Network Packets by Using the packetcap-uw Utility". 

To teach myself bash scripting, I prefer books. I picked up "The Linux Command Line" by Wiliam Shotts. I found it to be amazing!


Finally, here are some visual aids I made for myself some years back. As I was learning how the packet capture points worked, it made a huge difference for me to visualize where each capture point is. Hopefully it helps you as well!








 

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