REVIVE vCheck?

[alanrenouf]

I know, I have been really bad at maintaining this project over the last years, Im sorry!

I was recently made aware how valuable it is and how great it would be to get it back up and running.

How would everyone feel if I cleared things up by merged all the merge requests, doing some basic testing and fixing any issues with the new version in order for it to run and then deleting the issues with some friendly message to log it again after trying the current release? Effectively starting with a fresh version to give us something to work with?

Thoughts?!

[somersbd]

I'm all for it

[dcasota]

blure decisions, captain

[jpsider]

Warning - Grumpy old Man post.
How does this compare to 'AsbuiltReports', vester, vDocumentation?
My point being - if the community could come together and standardize on one platform with a plugin type of architecture - wouldn't we all benefit?
I don't know the best answer - simply provoking thought before someone spends time on a project.

[alanrenouf]

@jpsider different objectives and methodologies but yeah I get the sentiment, I doubt I can solve that problem though!

[alanrenouf]

and combining the strength for Skyline ?

vCheck is free for everyone, no appliance needed!

[Fazmin]

This is a excellent project. Although, this is a very comprehensive report. A light option would be useful too.

[MWalterDE]

Yes, yes, yes, please! 😃
We are still successfully using it...saved my day many times.

[Magneet]

@Fazmin you can remove the plugins that you don't need. That's what makes the report so awesome, you cna make it as big or small as you like.

[Fazmin]

@Magneet Thank you!

[lucdekens]

I did intend in 2019 to create a vCheck v7.

But then came the pandemic, my retirement, and a few other unforeseen roadblocks.

But besides all that, my biggest reason for not really continuing with that v7 version was the lack of interest I noticed when we announced v7.
Add to that the one rather insulting remark I got from an ex-contributor to vCheck, and my commitment was down the drain.

Yeah, there was some feedback, but it was somewhat limited.

There was the occasional ex-Vester contributor who wanted to move it to Pester tests.
There was the classic "Move it to a container" remark.
And a few other, more or less exotic, suggestions.

But all in all, I did notice little enthusiasm I'm afraid.

And that was just asking for ideas, let alone asking for contributions.

I do hope this new revival attempt will be more successful 🤞
The code and idea behind it deserve it.

[Sneddo]

If you look at the traffic stats on the repo, there's still a fairly constant level of traffic. I think the problem with using issues for feedback is around visibility- people don't come here unless they know about the project, and usually only when they have a problem. I guess the other part of it is that historically vCheck has been largely set-and-forget, with a lot of users not ever updating once the report is running.

I can enable logging on the plugins xml on the vcheck.reports site and see if that gives any more insight on actual usage numbers (assuming that the plugin report plugin is not disabled).

Add to that the one rather insulting remark I got from an ex-contributor to vCheck, and my commitment was down the drain.

I think you got the wrong end of the stick on that comment, I was actually just trying to gauge where you were at with the process, to see where I could help. Ironically, your reply killed any enthusiasm I had coming back to vCheck as well. The downside of text-based communication I guess 🤷‍♂️

The plan seems reasonable- let's draw a line in the sand, fix up what needs fixing in a final v6 release, and plan for a v7. I think it may be easier to start fresh with v7, to avoid bringing any legacy issues across. In terms of core vCheck functionality, making it a module available on the Powershell gallery would b a good move I think, but does require a bit of thought on how plugins are managed- potentially distributed as a separate module for each type (VMware, AD, Exchange, etc.)? May also be worth investigating if there are any other mature reporting frameworks already that we can focus on the content for, rather than reinventing the wheel.

[einsteinagogo]

I would certainly volunteer my time to test. Great to see it could be revived, and great respect to the contributors - Kudos !

As for contributions, that could be because VMware vSphere Admins, are not familiar with GitHub. e.g. how it works, checking in and out code, rather than just download a zip file!

Andy

[battybishop]

Happy to test, help where I can etc.

Rob

[monahancj]

Using it daily. A while ago I posted some pull requests, but then got busier. If this will be active again I'll make some time.

[ewalshjr9]

I would gladly help. It's an awesome set of scripts.