So Long GlobalDashboardPS - You're finally home
Almost 2 years ago, in March 2019, I pushed the first commit to the GlobalDashboardPS Powershell module. Now, the module will get some needed TLC from the people that should own it, HPE themselves.
The code has been available on Github and also as a Powershell module downloadable through the Powershell Gallery, with over 550 downloads.
Recently I got an email from Chris Lynch, Product manager at HPE for OneView/Synergy experience and maintainer of the OneView Powershell library, asking if I would consider transferring the module to HPE for future support and maintenance.
A bit of history
HPE OneView Global Dashboard is a management overview platform connecting multiple HPE OneView appliances in a single view.
I started working with the product from it's initial version, and had worked with OneView before that. Since I also was, and still am, keen on automating what can be automated I of course made use of the automation capabilities of the products.
HPE OneView had a Powershell module available from early on, which was a wrapper of the public REST API. As the Powershell module didn't fit all our use cases at the time I created my own module tailored to our environment. All by utilizing the public REST API. As the product and PS module matured there was (luckily) less use for my custom module and we could utilize the official module for most of our work.
For Global Dashboard though there wasn't a Powershell module available. There was a public REST API available from version 1.6, but no one had done anything to support Powershell users as was done with many other HPE products.
I did talk to a couple of HPE developers about the module back in 2019, but they weren't aware of any plans to create an official Powershell module for Global Dashboard, so I decided to create a more generic Powershell module which could be used by the community.
For me it was a great experience to build the module as it's quite a different challenge to write something meant for a broad public community as opposed to a private module meant to be used by a few people in your own organization. Add to this that Global Dashboard is primarily targeted at larger organizations with multiple OneView instances supporting hundreds or thousands of hardware objects.
The future
Since I switched jobs in October 2019 I haven't really worked with HPE products as I've done previously and especially not Global Dashboard. I have continued to support people that have had questions and comments, but it's been difficult to bring on new features since I haven't got access to a Global Dashboard environment to test things with. The module hasn't been updated since August 2019.
Therefore it's only natural that others take the project forward in the future, there is already new functionality in the product that the module doesn't have support for. And if those others will be HPE themselves I believe the module finds it rightful home. And to be honest I'm a bit proud that my work gets recognised by HPE and their customers, and that they want to continue to support this module