
🗓️ Jan 12, 2025 · 10 min read
Intro Welcome back! I know it’s been some time since my last post where I covered the deployment of the nested vSphere lab, but I’d like to take a moment to thank you for coming back and supporting me! Life …

🗓️ Jan 6, 2024 · 3 min read
Intro Welcome back! In my previous post, I covered the deployment and configuration of an Active Directory and Microsoft Certificate Authority server(s) for the nested lab environment.
Next, I will cover the steps used …

🗓️ Apr 23, 2023 · 6 min read
Intro Welcome back! In my previous post, I covered the deployment and configuration of a virtual Sophos XG Firewall router appliance to provide routing services for the nested lab environment.

🗓️ Apr 23, 2023 · 5 min read
Intro Welcome to Part 1 of my Nested vSphere Home Lab Series. In my previous post, I went over the gist of what I plan to do for my nested Nested vSphere Home Lab. In this post, I will cover the setup and configuration …

🗓️ Mar 24, 2023 · 4 min read
Intro Hey there! I’d taken a hiatus from writing as my personal life got in the way…got married, had a child, and changed employer(s), just to name a few!

🗓️ Jan 17, 2020 · 5 min read
Intro In my previous post, I covered the configuration of VMware Identity Manager in preparation for what I will cover in this post, the installation of vRealize Automation 8.0! This new release is a complete redesign of …

🗓️ Jan 6, 2020 · 3 min read
Intro In my previous post, I covered how to install vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager 8.0 and in the process it also deployed an instance of VMware Identity Manager aka Workspace One Access, which is a requirement for …

🗓️ Jan 5, 2020 · 5 min read
Intro Welcome to Part 1 of my vRealize Suite 2019 Series. In my previous post, I went over the gist of what I plan to deploy in my nested Home Lab. In this post, I will cover the installation of vRealize Suite Lifecycle …

🗓️ Jan 5, 2020 · 2 min read
Intro Hello, and thank you for visiting my blog! I’d decided to take some time away from writing in order to focus on my role as a Solutions Engineer at VMware, and enhance my skillset by getting more acclimated …

🗓️ Mar 22, 2019 · 6 min read
Intro Welcome to Part 6 of my NSX-T Home Lab series. In my previous post, I covered how to configure NSX-T networking to be able to start migrating and running workloads on the NSX-T fabric. In this post, I am going to …

🗓️ Feb 19, 2019 · 13 min read
Intro Welcome to Part 5 of my NSX-T Home Lab series. In my previous post, I went over the lengthy process of configuring the NSX-T fabric. In this post, I am going to cover the process of configuring the networking so we …

🗓️ Feb 15, 2019 · 9 min read
Intro Welcome to Part 4 of my NSX-T Home Lab series. In my previous post, I covered the process of deploying the NSX-T appliances and joining them to the management plane to have the foundational components ready for us …

🗓️ Feb 12, 2019 · 6 min read
Intro Welcome to Part 3 of my NSX-T Home Lab Series. In my previous post, I went over the process of setting up the Sophos XG firewall/router VM for my nested lab environment. In this post, we’ll cover the process …

🗓️ Jan 21, 2019 · 3 min read
Intro Welcome to Part 2 of my NSX-T Home Lab Series. In my previous post, I went over the installation and configuration of a Sophos XG firewall for my nested NSX-T Home Lab. In this post, I will cover the setup and …

🗓️ Jan 21, 2019 · 5 min read
Intro Welcome to Part 1 of my NSX-T Home Lab Series. In my previous post, I went over the gist of what I plan to do for my nested NSX-T Home Lab. In this post, I will cover the setup and configuration of a Sophos XG …

🗓️ Jan 21, 2019 · 3 min read
Intro I recently upgraded my Home Lab “Datacenter” to support all-flash VSAN and 10Gb networking with the plan to deploy NSX-T so that I can familiarize myself with the solution and use it to better prepare …

🗓️ Jan 21, 2019 · 3 min read
Disclaimer: The following is not supported by VMware.
Nested virtualization is nothing new, and many of us use it for test or demonstration purposes since they can quickly be stood up or torn down. William Lam has an …

🗓️ Mar 7, 2018 · 10 min read
In this post, I am going to discuss a little, “not-so-well-known” utility, called VMware Software Manager. This little “beast” was first released as v1.0 back on 2015-03-12, and its most current …

🗓️ Mar 4, 2018 · 4 min read
Just a few days ago, PowerShell Core v6.0 was released for Windows, Linux, and macOS systems. Alongside this release came the release of VMware PowerCLI 10.0.0.78953 which is VMware’s own …

🗓️ Mar 4, 2018 · 4 min read
Just a few days ago, PowerShell Core v6.0 was released for Windows, Linux, and macOS systems. Alongside this release came the release of VMware PowerCLI 10.0.0.78953 which is VMware’s own “PowerShell-like” utility.

🗓️ Mar 4, 2018 · 4 min read
Just a few days ago, PowerShell Core v6.0 was released for Windows, Linux, and macOS systems. Alongside this release came the release of VMware PowerCLI 10.0.0.78953 which is VMware’s own “PowerShell-like” utility. In …

🗓️ Feb 4, 2018 · 5 min read
Hello all and thank you for visiting my blog! In today’s post, I am going to cover how to deploy a VMware virtual appliance (.ova) using PowerCLI. “Why?” you asked? Well, because scripting and automation via PowerCLI is …

🗓️ Jan 1, 2018 · 4 min read
Welcome, and thanks for visiting my blog!
In this post, I am going to cover how to enable NFS v4.1 on a Synology device and then mount and NFS v4.1 datastore in VMware vSphere 6.5. By default, Synology devices support …

🗓️ Dec 31, 2017 · 2 min read
NOTE: This is completely for experimental purposes and is unsupported by both Apple and VMware
Hello all! This is just a quick follow up to my previous guide on running macOS 10.12 Sierra on ESXi 6.x, where I have now …

🗓️ Nov 13, 2017 · 3 min read
Yesterday morning I discovered that my Synology NAS had an unexpected shutdown in the middle of the night while my homelab VMs/workloads were still running. This caused both of my Domain Controllers databases to become …

🗓️ Mar 27, 2017 · 4 min read
Having a backup solution is imperative in any IT environment, whether it be Production or a simple Home Lab like I have. There are many different brands and companies that offer backup solutions, such as Veeam or Nakivo, …

🗓️ Feb 13, 2017 · 9 min read
Have you ever wondered to yourself, “What is OpenVPN and what is it used for?” I know I have! I currently leverage OpenDNS’s servers in my network, and when I saw that they offer an Open-Source VPN solution, I figured I …

🗓️ Feb 12, 2017 · 7 min read
Create a macOS/OS X VM on VMware ESXi 6.5 & VMware Workstation 12.5.2 Pro NOTE: This is completely for experimental purposes and is unsupported by both Apple and VMware

🗓️ Aug 14, 2016 · 4 min read
Create A VMFS5 Datastore On A USB Drive
Ever wondered if it was possible to use a USB Drive as a VMFS5 datastore in VMware vSphere 6.0? I sure know that I have! Not that I would like to run any VM’s on said datastore, as …

🗓️ Aug 6, 2016 · 5 min read
PernixData FVP Freedom Woes With Missing System UUID
Recently, I’ve been wanting to give PernixData FVP Freedom a run in my HomeLab Datacenter to better familiarize myself with the product and see how much of a …

🗓️ May 9, 2016 · 11 min read
Installing phpIPAM on Ubuntu 16.04 I have been thinking, for a while now, about deploying an IP Address Management (IPAM) system in my Home Lab environment to keep track of my assigned addresses across my various VLANs. …

🗓️ May 2, 2016 · 8 min read
Creating a Single-Node VSAN
Many of us homelab enthusiasts tend to build “whitebox” systems from spare PC parts and a few internal hard drives for local storage that we’ve either ordered or had laying around in order …

🗓️ Apr 30, 2016 · 7 min read
Create a Synology VM with XPEnology
I’m a huge fan of Synology NAS systems, but I must say, they do often put a gaping hole in your wallet. Well, fortunately the folks over at XPEnology have created an alternative way …

🗓️ Mar 27, 2016 · 3 min read
I recently picked up a new router/firewall for my home, and chose the Ubiquiti EdgeRouter Lite (ERLite-3). This device comes with a lot of bells and whistles and if you would like more information on it, please see here. …

🗓️ Mar 22, 2016 · 4 min read
Intel NIC Not Detected by ESXi
In this post I am going to cover a random issue I encountered after installing ESXi 6.0 Update 2 on one of my new Home Lab 2016 hosts. The actual installation of ESXi was extremely easy and …